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Comment by ethbr1

7 hours ago

What people think commercial AI is: a friend

What it actually is: a salesperson

It took the mass public a long time (15 years?) to realize search engines had shifted from the former to the latter, and that allowed Google to leverage that misplaced trust into huge profits.

Expect commercial AI to be the same, unless it's explicitly set up otherwise (read: Kagi assistant).

This reminds me of an old video about a guy that got invited to stay in the penthouse suites of casinos. In the video, he has a 'friend' who organises these trips for him (the friend works for the casinos).

This guy couldn't recognise the conflict of interest, and neither will 80%+ of AI users.

Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzbz0HDVKEs "Louis Theroux visits top gambler's Hilton hotel suite - Gambling in Las Vegas - BBC"