Mallory's Musings & Mischief21h ago

How many studies do researchers need to do before the threat of LLMs is taken seriously? This technology *might* have some useful niche applications, but widespread deployment will be a disaster for humanity.

This shit is an existential hazard, and not in the way the AI companies love to talk about. It's not going to take over the world like Skynet, it's a cognitohazard that turns anyone that interacts with it into an idiot.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-algorithmic-mind/202603/adults-lose-skills-to-ai-children-never-build-them

Adults Lose Skills to AI. Children Never Build Them.

Discussions of cognitive offloading often miss a critical distinction: What AI does to a 45-year-old's brain is categorically different from what it does to a 14-year-old's.

Psychology Today
Show threadMallory's Musings & Mischief21h ago
Thinking about LLM-based "AI" chatbots as cognitohazards is apt. They are deceptive and subversive in an extremely subtle but systematic way. They warp your perception and cognition to make you _feel_ as if you're more capable while simultaneously degrading your skills.
Show threadMallory's Musings & Mischief
These chatbots are like an amulet cursed by dark magic. It grants the wearer an apparent intelligence boost, at the cost of stealing their soul over time and binding them to the object. After extensive use, taking the amulet off incapacitates the person. They can't live without it.
Mar 25 at 2:25pmWeb
Show threadMallory's Musings & Mischief20h ago

I should stop talking about AI. Like so many other social issues, I'm only preaching to the converted. All it does is remind people of Yet Another Bad Thing You Have No Power To Change.

Or to put it a different way, whatever levers you have available to influence the situation are probably already being pushed. Me reminding you doesn't do anything other than make you feel worse.

Show threadJake19h ago
@malcircuit this is partially true but also, if it makes you feel better to write about it and analyze it, then you should continue and people can ignore or block as needed. There's nothing wrong with preaching to the choir.
Show threadHuntn0015h ago
@malcircuit It can be argued your mostly always preaching to the converted on Mastodon. 😉
However, regarding AI, I’m not against it as a principal, but I am against it when there are so many capitalist entities competing and consuming excess resources, it’s just not efficient.
And when it is used for profit to disenfranchise citizens, and the result is inadequate AI who can’t do the job a person can, but has displaced a worker who now has to scramble to find meaningful work. 1:2
Show threadHuntn0015h ago
@malcircuit Under Capitalism as it exists, this AI related disenfranchising economic trend will only worsen until the collapse of the economy and more and more citizens struggle to support themselves.
Additionally as it exists, AI phone assistance just sucks! 2:2
Show threadAaron Soto13h ago

@malcircuit These conversations are useful, if only to help us articulate our shared concerns to others. While we may not individually control the situation, we are able to collectively improve our odds.

For example, I've been reading more about cognitive load and debt. I mentioned it a work conversation on Monday, and my boss used that language with her leadership yesterday, then we had a followup conversation today about how difficult it is to train humans to catch unintuitive mistakes.

These posts, including the amulet and atrophy metaphors, will directly help me to continue those conversations and start new ones. Articles and posts like these help us to build definitions, cite examples, and reframe the narrative, so thank you for forwarding this and for adding your perspective and imagery.

Show threadAmin Girasol11h ago
@surefire psssst - I think the intent of your toot is improved by chopping out "I disagree". 
Show threadAaron Soto10h ago
@fluidlogic Thanks, I was on the fence and appreciate the feedback.
Show threadAdam Millerchip13h ago
@malcircuit I quite like the echo chamber here as it offsets the complete boosterism I'm exposed to elsewhere.
Show threadGregly12h ago
@malcircuit I am going to try muting the word, along with LLM/LLMs, for a bit. Tempers surrounding it are too high.