this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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What exactly is the harm in people being mislead in this way, as long as they still know about the risks of hallucination, in your eyes?
When is being mislead not a bad thing? In a perfect world, there would be none of that. Of course we don't live in a utopia, but I'd prefer if we avoid spreading skewed understandings of anything at all as much as possible. It's a matter of principle.
Nobody does this when people say their computer is "thinking" when it's running slow, I just don't see the necessity of pointing this out every time the topic is brought up.
Ideally people who say that aren't misled into believing their computer is thinking in the same way that a human is
Having an inaccurate view about something so fundamental to the topic leads you to predict reality incorrectly and make bad decisions
Nobody does this when people say their computer is "thinking" when it's running slow, I just don't see the necessity of pointing this out every time the topic is brought up.
I agree it's unnecessary to point out. Using anthropomorphising shorthand to talk about technology is extremely common, and AI is no different; saying an AI is "thinking" or whatever is fine. But there is a difference between using that language as shorthand, and actually holding misconceptions about what is really happening. So saying that it's fine for someone to be misled and use that language is different than just saying the language makes sense to use.