Comradeship // Freechat

the AI app can get his kids to open up more to it than to him or his wife about their issues.

This was a thing decades ago with much simpler scripted "AI":

https://liacademy.co.uk/the-story-of-eliza-the-ai-that-fooled-the-world/

Many users began to reveal personal and emotional information, believing ELIZA was responding thoughtfully, even though it was merely following scripted patterns without any true understanding.

I think the extent to which people can open up more easily to an AI than to a human says something about culture and vulnerability, and how shitty it can be on creating an environment that feels safe to be vulnerable in, or even using language that is exploratory rather than judgmental.

If a young kid is at the store and says to their parent "I want that toy", and the parent's immediate reflex is "no, you already have lots of toys at home" instead of "why is that? What's interesting to you about that toy?" Well it doesn't seem surprising to me that a kid in a culture like that might have an easier time opening up to an AI. The kid probably hasn't worked out beforehand why they want the toy. They're just trying to learn to express something they feel, a want, a desire. But being heard out, having a nice conversation with a loved one in which they feel safe and happy, I'm sure most kids are going to remember that far more fondly than any specific toy.

And whether kid or adult, this is part of the appeal of chatbots. That they aren't apt to jump down your throat over something you say. But this is also a problem because there are times when making judgments and setting boundaries matter very much, and the AI is not equipped to stand in for that part properly. It's just good at standing in for openness (and this is a part people are supposed to be bonding over normally, with each other!)

They are delusional but they're also not saying what they mean. People are often the most delusional about their ability to get away with lies due to a countervailing, widespread irresponsibility known as politeness. It has minimal crossover with actual politeness. I can't speak more on this here. It's too dangerous

I feel you. The sheer amount of not-even-crypto-anymore-fascism I have to navigate at work just keeps growing. Dudes proudly letting me know they watch Azov combat footage over lunch. Dudes going on a screed about immigrants and how we should take notes from the slightly more openly ethnonationalist country next door. Dudes glazing Milei, holy shit shut up we're on the other side of the world. Dudes joking that I'm listening to ***** music in the morning with the hard R because they heard some hip-hop when I took off my headphones. Dudes being very concerned about the accurate portrayal of eUrOpEaN cUlTuRe in the new odyssey slop (a wholly original opinion they came up with based on their knowledge of Homer who they've totally read). Dudes absolutely do not rock.

same here, everyone i know is fascist or liberal, imperialist The only exception is a small group in my school and my partner, everyone else is blindly trusting everything they hear from the right. It's soul-crushing

People are not only moving more right only, they are moving a lot more to the left also. I think a pretty good example of this is the support for the far right and far left in east Germany. East Germans are 2 times as likely to support the far right party than west Germans, but they are also 3 times more likely to support the far left party than west Germans.

Of course this dosnt mean everything is alright. As east Germans are still 2 times as likely to support the far right than the far left party.

Also i know that the "far left" party isnt really that far left, but hey, is not that bad.

people are fundamentally rational, and what they believe is strongly influenced by their material interests. furthermore, there's some truth to everyone's ideology, simply by nature of the fact that it was derived from interacting with the same reality that you and i do. you don't have to become friends or share everything with everyone, but you should be able to find the truth in each person you interact with and latch onto that in almost any non-confrontational setting. i interact with people i significantly disagree with on a regular basis and it doesn't bother me at all anymore, although i admittedly have had a lot of practice.