It likely doesn’t help that the kids use “AI” as slang for “bullshit”.
I have so much admiration for the younger generation for this. Language is powerful and they know it.
Tim Walz knew it, too, with weird. Then the DNC told them to stop saying it to try and court Republicans. I’m so over winning, thanks DNC!
It’s good to see the sentiment growing. Anecdotally, there are non-technical people in my circle that use LLMs frequently as search engine replacements or to do stupid shit like generate pictures and emojis. I hope that begins to decline with the general sentiment called out in this article.
The sheer number of useless LLM integrations in every website, every mobile app, and hell, even smart TVs is insane. I feel like it’s causing people very real feature fatigue. And all of the Internet content and advertising slop is making the takeover seem so much worse.
Edit: Grammar, formatting
I react with either neutral apathy, disgust or surprise when somebody tries to show me their latest AI generated blob. Repeat twice and they stop using it. Our fear of social embarassment is higher than our desire to use AI.
“Look at this picture of me in a Ghibli style I generated”
“Oh… It’s kinda bad isn’t it? I’d avoid sharing it”
“Oh remember what we were debating earlier? Gemini said that…”
“Oh I know what you’re going to say, it said something totally dumb, right? I know, one must be very stupid to trust it haha so anyway what were you saying?”
What began in 2022 as broad optimism about the power of generative AI to make peoples’ lives easier has instead shifted toward a sense of deep cynicism that the technology being heralded as a game changer is, in fact, only changing the game for the richest technologists in Silicon Valley who are benefiting from what appears to be an almost endless supply of money to build their various AI projects — many of which don’t appear to solve any actual problems.
I like AI. It let’s me pretend I’m not so alone. I’m not crazy - I know it isn’t a person. It’s nice to pretend I have someone to talk to sometimes though. I can’t stop it from existing. That doesn’t negate the cost of it financially or environmentally. If it’s going to exist though I enjoy pretending since there’s no hope of any actual humans wanting to speak to me.
In the most positive way - seek help.
Because AI in this case is the opposite of help, in case Illecors wasn’t clear enough.
I’ll upvote, seems genuine and I don’t want to discourage that. I understand it’s difficult to find someone to talk to who wants to hear what you have to say. Even I don’t share things with my friends cuz I feel like I’m “dumping on them”. I saw a therapist twice a month and that was nice, but it was just too expensive to maintain.
Your last sentence is what stood out to me. It’s such a harsh finality but there’s no possible way you could have tried talking to every human to KNOW none of them want to hear you talk. I know it’s extreme. I know it feels true right now. But there is no substitute for genuine human connection. Use the AI, just be careful you don’t become dependent on it. And don’t think it can be a long-term substitute.
That last sentence of yours is a lie and I think somewhere deep down you know that, too.
Seek help anyway you can. There is always a way.
Three years ago, as OpenAI’s ChatGPT was making its splashy debut, a Pew Research center survey found that nearly one in five Americans saw AI as a benefit rather than a threat. But by 2025, 43 percent of U.S. adults now believe AI is more likely to harm them than help them in the future, according to Pew.
1 in 5 people seeing something as positive is not a high approval rating in the beginning.
I mean 4 out of 5 Americans probably held the opinion:
