Many, not nearly all but *many*, folks using this things seem (again, as a gut feeling) to just talk differently after contact with chatbots? I can't even quite put my finger on it, but it scares the shit out of me.

It's not even an argument against chatbots, I have plenty of arguments that are far better substantiated, it's a personal fear about what they're doing.

I've gotten a number of replies and seen a fair bit of discussion elsewhere to the extent that this is a consequence of having an automated yes-man at your beck and call.

I don't think that's wrong, but it's also not what I'm getting at. Yes-men will validate your bad ideas, pushing you towards not losing the criticality required to distinguish good ideas and bad ideas. But what I've casually observed (again as a non-expert) is people losing the ability to express ideas *at all*.

I beg you, please take this whole thread and others that I post along the same lines with a massive grain of salt. I do *not* know what I'm talking about here. I come from a place of seeing a thing, not knowing what in the fuck it is, and seeing comparatively little in the ways of expert analysis that I could use to understand what I'm seeing.

Normally if I don't have a fucking clue, I try to shut the fuck up. But there's something *missing* here, and I'm trying to express why that scares me.