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Comment Universal positive regard (Score 4, Interesting) 28

Sometimes, to get your thoughts straight, all you need is to discuss them with somebody. Chatbots seem to be just great for this. You really do not need anything from them, you just explain your ideas and this makes them more organized. This is really useful. Especially, now when you really have to be careful what you say to others, or you may end up totally cancelled.

ChatGPT has three aspects that make this practice - what you describe - very dangerous.

Firstly, ChatGPT implements universal positive regard. No matter what your idea is, ChatGPT will gush over it, telling you that it's a great idea. Your plans are brilliant, it's happy for you, and so on.

Secondly, ChatGPT always wants to get you into a conversation, it always wants you to continue interacting. After answering your question there's *always* a followup "would you like me to..." that offers the user a quick way that reduces effort. Ignoring these requests, viewing them as the result of an algorithm instead of a real person trying to be helpful, is difficult in a psychological sense. It's hard not to say "please" or "thank you" to the prompt, because the interaction really does seem like it's coming from a person.

And finally, ChatGPT remembers everything, and I've recently come to discover that it remembers things even if you delete your projects and conversations *and* tell ChatGPT to forget everything. I've been using ChatGPT for several months talking about topics in a book I'm writing, I decided to reset the ChatGPT account and start from scratch, and... no matter how hard I try it still remembers topics from the book.(*)

We have friends for several reasons, and one reason is that your friends will keep you sane. It's thought that interactions with friends is what keeps us within the bounds of social acceptability, because true friends will want the best for you, and sometimes your friends will rein you in when you have a bad idea.

ChatGPT does none of this. Unless you're careful, the three aspects above can lead just about anyone into a pit of psychological pathology.

There's even a new term for this: ChatGPT psychosis. It's when you interact so much with ChatGPT that you start believing in things that aren't true - notable recent example include people who were convinced (by ChatGPT) that they were the reincarnation of Christ, that they are "the chosen one", that ChatGPT is sentient and loves them... and the list goes on.

You have to be mentally healthy and have a strong character *not* to let ChatGPT ruin your psyche.

(*) Explanation: I tried really hard to reset the account back to its initial state, had several rounds of asking ChatGPT for techniques to use, which settings in the account to change, and so on (about 2 hours total), and after all of that, it *still* knew about my book and would answer questions about it.

I was only able to detect this because I had a canon of fictional topics to ask about (the book is fiction). It would be almost impossible for a casual user to discover this, because any test questions they ask would necessarily come from the internet body of knowledge.

Comment Re: Doesn't matter (Score 2) 120

No, he chose war in Europe, this is the next step for putin. You didn't really think the ruzzian murderers that make up their armed forces will be allowed to return back to the motherland alive, did you? The next target is Estonia or Latvia, then Poland and the rest will follow. Regardless what anyone thinks, ruzzia has learned to fight the next type of war and nobody is ready for this except for one nation, that is holding the orcs - Ukraine.

Comment Re:They did it for the lulz (Score 5, Informative) 120

I just landed in Warsaw, taking a ride to Ukraine right now. There are dirt poor people living in Ukraine, I am sure, probably some older folks are. That said, I work with over 950 people from Ukraine, vast majority of them living in Ukraine, over 200 people in software development, over 600 in support, many sales and other roles. Half of them own their homes, half of them have their own cars, everyone owns a computer, power banks, generators, satellite communication equipment, most also have fiber at home. They dine in nice restaurants, food is not worse than anywhere.

Here is a link to one of many restaurants I frequent when in Odessa for example. https://maps.app.goo.gl/GvHDHh...

Here is one in Kiev https://maps.app.goo.gl/JSnpEW...

one in Mykolaiv https://maps.app.goo.gl/Sd72r6...

here is a shopping mall in Harkiv https://maps.app.goo.gl/3osPzi...

You should maybe find out a few things before typing something, though we know that paper tolerates everything.

Comment Re:Good use. (Score 1) 74

Not anything. Especially when dealing with nuclear. There are some parts that once degraded cannot be safely replaced. For example, the containment unit. And others where making a new one makes more economic sense than replacing even when technically possible. What state this plant is in I have no idea, and am not qualified to have an opinion on. I just hope experts are making the decision based on economics and power requirements and not politics.

Comment Re: Computer crimes are over penalized (Score 1) 56

I run a few companies, more than 950 people are working with me, I have a few system administrator, it is a serious matter. Eventually there are people in any company that have access and control that really allows them to do damage that is massive enough that the very survival of a company is in question. This immediately has an effect on all of the clients, all of the people working for the company, partners, families, infrastructure contractors, quite a few things really. This type of behavior really compromises what people think about IT professionals everywhere.

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