I have a lot of issues with AI in general, but frankly the biggest, most immediate one is that I reeeally hate when tech pretends to be human. Like search engines giving me a seventh grader’s essay before the actual one-word answer I was looking for. Or the uncanny valley voice at the drive-thru speaker saying “great choice!” to everything I order. Or the AI on shopping websites saying “I’d recommend this model…” Etc etc.
There’s just something so strange and uncomfortable to me about a thing that we all know is not a person pretending to be one; feels like someone telling a lie directly to my face, and I know they’re lying, and they know they’re lying, but I’m supposed to… appreciate it? For some reason?
But a lot of people I know actually prefer it. They’ll ask ChatGPT something—even something that has a simple, definitive answer that doesn’t really need further explanation—rather than just looking it up on a search engine. I’m just curious what the difference in psychology is between us. And I’m wondering if maybe it’s actually just a me problem; I mean, I hated Jeeves too, and he seemed pretty well-liked back in the day.
It’s not exactly new. There’s a reason customer service is a skill, even in a positive context.
Many people crave affirmation. LLMs compliment their intellect, boosting their ego and affirming that their question falls under critical thinking or research rather than ignorance or stupidity.
They’re the type that turn everything into a conversation (more common for elderly people). They crave human connection.
Along the same lines, some people just dislike technology. LLMs are less robotic.
They may trust information coming from a human more than what pops up online. (A large factor in the spread of disinformation)
The additional context/hand holding helps them digest information
Personally: I learn to live with it because search engines are trash. It’s faster to fact check what an LLM tells me, and it usually involves less unnecessary reading.
Basically, people don’t like researching things. LLMs make it feel more question focused rather than information focused.