10 Comments
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Stephen Moore's avatar

To me, this could generally be the tipping point, where society becomes too dependant on AI and it slowly erodes the fabric of what it means to be human and how to interact with other humans. Then add the next layer to this – virtual worlds and headsets – and you've got humans who live entirely inside computer generated worlds. I can't see anyway in which that is net positive?

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Coalabi's avatar

A new drug ... and, therefore, a new plague ... And a new cohort of drifting people ... . What a pity! I cannot believe this is how the 21st century should look like ...

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Emile van Bergen's avatar

Well said! Those who read Asimov's Foundation know the potential of emotional manipulation: https://open.substack.com/pub/schrijfsels/p/the-mule-is-upon-us

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Jonas Braadbaart's avatar

Thanks for sharing Jurgen! Scary stuff 😬

A couple of days ago I unpaywalled one of my older posts about AI companions https://open.substack.com/pub/metacircuits/p/ai-assistants-for-humans

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Carla's avatar

Well said. It's telling that lately OpenAI has changed its feedback function from "Was this response helpful?" to "Do yo like this personality?"

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daria nazarenko's avatar

Thank you so much for that insights – I loved the graphics of how AI was used last year and this.

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Mark Lovett's avatar

Fascinating chart from Harvard Business Review. I'm hearing more and more about the Therapy/Companionship angle, but personally, I don't get it. I think of AI as a co-creator, but companion? Organizing Life is logical, but Finding Purpose is another head-scratcher for me. Not sure how a non-human entity that doesn't know (the real) you is a good source for that life question. It's nice to see Healthier Living in the top ten, that's an encouraging note. The jump in Creativity has me wondering if the result is to encourage us to be more creative, or to hand over our creativity to AI?

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Liz's avatar

Not only addictive but includes characteristics of cults. Although not a typical group cult, people may follow their 'favorite' AI to the depths of hell.

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One Wandering Mind's avatar

Thought provoking and I do see that there is big risk to people using AI for relationships. Also, that AI systems optimizing for engagement will drive towards that.

What I am more skeptical about is that using AI as an aid to make decisions or even for therapeutic advice or a sounding board would lead to negative consequences and the disempowerment. Depending on the person and AI system , it seems like it could help encourage reflection , but also guard against just allowing a person to get stuck in a rumination cycle.

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