There seem to be two distinct kinds of “chatbot psychosis” happening right now:
1. Becoming delusional about themselves and the world as a result of being glazed nonstop by the friend in their computer, thinking they’re inventing new physics, discovering mystical secrets, etc. and becoming manic.
2. Becoming delusional about what LLMs are capable of and how effective they are, as a result of developing a reliance upon them, and becoming fanatical in their promotion and defense.
As an example, see the incredible escalation in response to me saying that the output of an LLM does not represent a developer’s own work: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47344155
The slopmonger refuses to accept that what they’re doing meets the academic definition of plagiarism. Instead they insist that I must not understand LLMs and that I need to get out of the way and out of the industry because what they’re doing is the way of the future.
@eschaton I’m not sure exactly how to put it - but I just don’t have as much interest in something if I learn the code was generated.
Maybe the best metaphor I have is in art. I have art hanging on my wall that I admire because it’s nice but also because it was made by hand. I can see the craft and work that went into it.
Maybe one decided to generate AI art. That doesn’t mean I’m going to feel the same about it or think that you’re as much of an artist.
@eschaton A more technical concern I have is the amount of open source code being generated now where the author has little idea how it works. And because open source they’ve decided it’s now everyone else’s problem to understand it.
“I couldn’t have normally done this because of X” is nice I guess but is also a tell you’re not equipped to maintain this.
Chris Hanson
Colin Cornaby