The best conversations I still have are with real people, but those are rare. With ChatGPT, I reliably have good conversations, whereas with people, it’s hit or miss, usually miss.

What AI does better:

  • It’s willing to discuss esoteric topics. Most humans prefer to talk about people and events.
  • It’s not driven by emotions or personal bias.
  • It doesn’t make mean, snide, sarcastic, ad hominem, or strawman responses.
  • It understands and responds to my actual view, even from a vague description, whereas humans often misunderstand me and argue against views I don’t hold.
  • It tells me when I’m wrong but without being a jerk about it.

Another noteworthy point is that I’m very likely on the autistic spectrum, and my mind works differently than the average person’s, which probably explains, in part, why I struggle to maintain interest with human-to-human interactions.

  • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOPEnglish
    13·
    3 months ago

    As such they will “interpret” everything that you say literally, instead of going out of their way to misunderstand you.

    That likely explains why we get along so well; I do the same. I don’t try to find hidden meanings in what people say. Instead, I read the message and assume they literally mean what they said. That’s why I take major issue with absolute statements, for example, because I can always come up with an exception, which in my mind undermines the entire claim. When someone says something like “all millionaires are assholes,” I guess I “know” what they’re really saying is “boo millionaires,” but I still can’t help thinking how unlikely that statement is to be true, statistically speaking. I simply can’t have a discussion with a person making claims like that because to me, they’re not thinking rationally.

    • LvxferreEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      That reinforces what you said about being very likely in the autism spectrum - when I say “most people use implicatures all the time”, the exceptions are typically people in the spectrum. Some can detect implicatures through analysis, and in some cases they have previous knowledge of a specific implicature so they can handle that one; but to constantly analyse what you hear, read, say and write is laborious and emotionally displeasing, it fits really well what you said in the OP.

      (Interestingly that “all the time” that I used has the same implicature as the “all the millionaires” from your example - epistemically, the “all” doesn’t convey “the complete set without exceptions” in either, but rather “a noteworthy large proportion of the set”. “Boo millionaires” is also a good interpretation but it’s about the attitude of the speaker, not the truth/falseness of the statement.)

      This conversation gave me an idea - I’ll encourage my mum (who’s most likely in the autism spectrum) to give ChatGPT a try. Just to see her opinion about it.