Comment by taurath
3 months ago
At one time recently, ChatGPT popped up a message saying I could customize the tone, I noticed they had a field "what traits should ChatGPT have?". I chose "encouraging" for a little bit, but quickly found that it did a lot of what it seems to be doing for everyone. Even when I asked for cold objective analysis it would only return "YES, of COURSE!" to all sorts of prompts - it belies the idea that there is any analysis taking place at all. ChatGPT, as the owner of the platform, should be far more careful and responsible for putting these suggestions in front of users.
I'm really tired of having to wade through breathless prognostication about this being the future, while the bullshit it outputs and the many ways in which it can get fundamental things wrong are bare to see. I'm tired of the marketing and salespeople having taken over engineering, and touting solutions with obvious compounding downsides.
As I'm not directly in the working on ML, I admit I can't possibly know which parts are real and which parts are built on sand (like this "sentiment") that can give way at any moment. Another comment says that if you use the API, it doesn't include these system prompts... right now. How the hell do you build trust in systems like this other than willful ignorance?
What worries me is that they're mapping our weaknesses because there's money in it. But are they mapping our strengths too - or is that just not profitable?
It’s the business model. Even here at HN we’re comparing X and Y, having deep thoughts about core technologies before getting caught off-guard when a tech company does exactly the same they’ve been doing for decades. It’s like if you change the logo, update the buzzwords, and conform to the neo-leadership of vagueposting and ”brutal honesty” you can pull the exact same playbook and even insiders are shocked pikachu when they do the most logical things for growth, engagement and market dominance.
If there’s any difference in this round, it’s that they’re more lean at cutting to the chase, with less fluff like ”do no evil” and ”make the world a better place” diversions.