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Comment by bko

10 days ago

ChatGPT currently has

~ 120 to 190 million daily active users

~ 800 million weekly active users

~ 450 million to over 800 million depending on the data source and methodology.

Get a grip. Hundreds of millions of people are using it, most of them for free. I would say "society" has benefited.

This has to be peak HN.

Create the fastest growing consumer product in history.

HN anon: yes, but who will benefit?

26 comments

bko

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ceejayoz  10 days ago

Facebook has more. Was it a benefit? Does the benefit outweigh the harms?

  • bko  10 days ago

    Yes, Facebook is a benefit. Among other things, it gave me React which much of the modern web is built on, and React Native, PyTorch, GraphQL, Cassandra, Presto, and RocksDB just to name a few.

    The question is, what are billions of people doing on Facebook if it's harmful? I don't know. My daycare sends me updates, my barbershop tells me when they're closing and I used it to sell my fridge.

    This hole Facebook irrational hate is ridiculously overblown. It's an app, and compared to things like TikTok that is essentially a Chinese psy-op, it's really a great product.

    • uncomputation  10 days ago

      > what are billions of people doing on Facebook if it's harmful? I don't know.

      This is extremely naive and akin to asking "why do people drink if it’s bad for you then??" Popular != healthy

      11 replies →

    • amrocha  10 days ago

      It’s hard to believe this is not a rage bait AI comment given the last paragraph.

      Both are terrible for society but I use facebook tools so Chinese app bad, USA app good i guess? Is that what you’re trying to say?

    • danielheath  10 days ago

      > The question is, what are billions of people doing on Facebook if it's harmful?

      Perhaps _you_ don’t know.

      It’s quite notorious for being the place to organise the genocide over in Myanmar.

      IMO, that should disqualify every executive or engineer who knew (and did nothing) from ever again being involved with widely-used infrastructure.

    • kovac  10 days ago

      > My daycare sends me updates, my barbershop tells me when they're closing and I used it to sell my fridge.

      To consider the other side of this, read "The age of surveillance capitalism" by Shoshana Zuboff (really read it though, not chatgpt the summary :).

      All the benefits you mentioned are real. But, at what cost and could we have reaped the same benefits without surrendering all agency to those who can't be held accountable?

      1 reply →

  • grafmax  10 days ago

    Facebook and many of these other VC companies have worked by building a moat through network effects by burning money to build something free and awesome. Then once you HAVE the network effect then it becomes hard to leave. Your history is on there, people know you through it, your friends and family are there; are you really going to leave? That’s when Facebook starts turning the screws. Ads. Manipulative algorithms. Polarizating recommendation algorithms. Social isolation. Making deals with dictatorships. Censorship of the worst crimes humanity can commit against itself (genocide).

    Why? They are making money through all of it. It’s called rent extraction. You OWN something valuable. You no longer have to produce something of value. You can just charge people money for what you own. Rent. It’s various forms of rent. Sucking out money and souls into it. One of countless ways we’re leeched on by these companies and their billionaire owners.

    Do the benefits outweigh the harms? Facebook and the VC playbook is boiling a frog and we are the frog.

genghisjahn  10 days ago

It’s fast because there already gobs of people on the internet because of all the other products that came before. Facebook didn’t grow as fast because there weren’t as many people on line then. Gmail didn’t grow as fast because there weren’t as many people online then.