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Comment by EGreg | Hacker News Reader

“ Blockchain was a solution in search of a problem. So is AI.”

Amazing to see the totally different attitude of HN to AI vs Blockchain.

AI can actually become a huge NEGATIVE value for the Web, as swarms of AI turn every forum including this one into a dark forest

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Because personally LLMs are already net positive on the world, and not energy-hungry scam hiding behind grandeur ideas.

Do you really think that swarms of bots churning out bullshit posing as humans, clickbait, rage posts, arguing people down in forums, and generally drowning out genuine conversation, is a net positive for the world? That's even more of a tech bro attitude than blockchain, sorry.

"swarms of AI turn every forum including this one into a dark forest"

As AI text generation gets better, will it really matter if you're talking to a human or a machine?

Oh, you won’t be talking. As soon as you pipe up, you’ll be shouted down by implacable bot swarms until you learn to not even bother. Give it 3-5 years

At first, maybe, but then human to human conversation will drift to gated communities with strong verification, and on the wider net it will be like the blogging revolution all over again as people exchange pre-seeded forums for ideas more so than the ideas themselves, and compose them with other constellations of thought using the ecosystem of AI tools built around same.

As I said, this seems like a more dystopian future than anything blockchain could ever usher in.

Of course it matters. We're talking in order to persuade each other, and reading in order to know what other people think. An astroturfing bot simply isn't important to you. You cannot successfully persuade it, and if you do hyponotize it into momentary compliance, that compliance is worth nothing. It goes forward as if your conversation never happened, and its opinion is worth nothing to you. It is, at most, a weapon against your brain. The only winning move is not to play. And if you can't trust that you're talking to people, than any site will cease to be interesting. You will feel it and you will close the browser.

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