Comment by junaru
7 hours ago
Educated, established, working within the industry yet life ruined based on marketing hype and hallucinations.
Would think being in the field for 30 years one would develop some common sense but apparently its less and less the case.
No disagreement, but these stories also make me worry for myself.
Tech moves so quickly, eventually I will fall behind. When I’m old, what scams will I fall victim to? What tech will confuse me and make me think it is sentient?
I know this guy was only 50, but I think of my grandfather in his 90s and getting old scares me because I just don’t know what I’ll fall victim to.
Exercising cognitive skills is, I believe, known to delay the onset of age-related cognitive decline, which is another excellent reason to avoid letting use of LLMs cause skill atrophy.
The optimistic prediction is that we eventually see a type of AI anti-virus but for scams and social engineering. Something that can filter incoming communications but also intervene in channels that are already open. There's probably good financial incentive to create a service like this since it would likely not only prevent outright fraud but could also help the user evaluate legitimate transactions so that they at least get an even break.
>one would develop some common sense but apparently its less and less the case.
you cannot typically "common sense" your way out of a mental illness.
Sometimes having a lot of experience, is a negative for dealing with new things.
The problem is that one's past success leads to ego. Ego makes it hard to accept the evidence of your mistakes. This creates cognitive dissonance, limiting contrary feedback. The result is that you become very sure of everything that you think, and are resistant to feedback.
This kind of works out so long as things remain the same. After all one's past success is based on a set of real skills that you developed. And those skills continue to serve you well.
But when faced with something new, LLMs in this case, past skills don't apply. However your overconfidence remains. This makes it easy to confidently march off of a cliff that everyone else could see.
I remember reading that this is why scammers like to target doctors and former business people. It seems becoming very proficient in one narrow area can leave you vulnerable in others.
Understanding the mechanics isn't the same as being immune to the experience
A lot of people in the industry work entirely on faith and marketing. It’s a shit show.