Marcin WicharyJan 11

Small hypothesis: I bet people like AI chat interfaces in some part because they are “clean” – simple text, easy to process, consistent visuals, no ads, no pop-ups, etc.

To use a cliche example: Even if it wasn’t in any way “smarter,” it’d still be nicer to ask ChatGPT for a recipe than go to a webpage to read that recipe. Its interface is a natural “reader mode.”

But… that’s not going to last.

Show threadMichael ClaytonJan 11
@mwichary Yeah, it won't last long I'm sure. It may be harder than usual to tell when the enshittification begins because some of he ads/etc will be in plaintext too.
Show threadMarcin WicharyJan 11
@mwcz Yeah, I’m curious how that’s going to go. Are they going to be dumb “banner-like” ads inserted in between, or something more nefarious.
Show threadMichael Clayton
@mwichary If I had to bet, my prediction is that garish ads will be added to the free tiers, similar to YouTube & almost every free service on the Web today. But free and paid tiers will have something more subtle. Not "ads" but biases towards certain products, services, etc. Asking chatbox XYZ for shoe recommendations will reliably result in Nike, that kind of thing.
Jan 11 at 6:10pmMoshidon