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.
I think it’s part of human nature to long for some connection, to socialize, to discover new things. We humans have been fantasizing with sentient machines for ages. We have been exploring the possibilities of interacting with other sentient species for millennia. The machine trope is just one more in that category.
That’s where the allure is.
Of course the trash you are being sold isn’t truly sentient, but people see stripes and call it a tiger.
As for what makes it so palatable, for most people, if they see something they recognize and relate to, they find it easier to use. LLMs are in particular very easy to use for this reason.
And it’s ok if you don’t like the idea at all. My previous statement was just a generalization, not everyone is equally enamored with the idea of interacting with a different, sentient, and intelligent species.