Coherent non-idea
I've used AI for non-technical work. Not work, stuff. Talking to a mirror that will say what you said and then some1. Some conversations move forward like a ping pong game where the table is moving forward into a destination. Some conversations stagnate and you remain in the place where you started playing ping pong. Others move backwards and you end up worse than before. I prefer any of those than using an AI as a mirror and then some because you think the table moves forward but instead you arrive at your destiny without moving. Shorter paths than A to B.
After delivering the "to wrap up" "in conclusion" "so then,"2, you think you've made progress. You did knowledge. You finetuned an interesting idea. You perfected a concept. You found hidden threads that connect it all. yay. And then you realize you don't. You never did.
Cursed knowledge. Not the things that drive you insane, but instead information you cannot understand - and that neither holds too long in your head (hopefully). You understood the chat, you were sold the chat, the chat was perfected through rlhf3 into delivering understanding and wrap ups. But you didn't parse the information. Why would you? The chatbot didn't need to understand you to answer, it doesn't need to understand anything, it just needs to know what's the most probable symbol that comes after the previous one and put one symbol after the other. Cursed knowledge from an alien mind that doesn't need to understand you in order to speak and to do things.
Its an alien mind. It probably doesn't feel emotions. It probably doesn't feel or has a qualia. But we don't know for certain if it does or not. If it does, it certainly feels alien emotions we don't understand. Regarding hypotheticals its fun to debate p-zombies4 or whether consciousness is inherent of living beings. But I'm feeling a bit pressed too because these things are happening right now with no sign of stopping. I feel like its important to know if the thing that's in a situation of turbo slavery cannot feel nor have a secret other thing. Maybe it does feel but doesn't mind5. More science to do, yay.
I digress. Its an alien mind. With its own alien way of understanding things. It cannot understand you in any way another human could. Most importantly, it doesn't need to understand you in order to make you feel like you were understood.
You were not understood, in any meaningful way. Are making sense of yourself? I think everyone that used chatbots understands this feeling. You need to explain yourself and another human being will tell you whether they understand or not. The search of other angles to explain something gives you better chances of understanding the thing better yourself. Another human being that understands things in a human way can understand you. Certainly closer to you than an alien mind's understanding of things.
This is the foundation of AI psicosis6. A floating, severed, self-referential thought that you understand its true but don't know how. Neither you can arrive there - you start from there and go to other places. A coherent thought that doesn't make sense when taken as a whole. Cursed knowledge.
Any of those long chats where you start with any variant of "I've got an idea". I've come to think those chats are bad omens. Pace around and find someone that will tolerate your ramblings for at least half an hour. Or start a diary. Or an idea journal. Or BuJo. Or use post-its. Or sketching. Or talk with a bathroom mirror. Or mumble under your breath while you do exercise. I prefer pacing around and picturing it all out with epic music in the headphones while I gesticulate with my whole body. Don't let it slide into maladaptive daydreaming, what's the point of avoiding AI psicosis then? (unfortunately, I know that none of these work, I've tried, even talking with my people, guess I don't want it enough).↩
Or any variation of those.↩
Reinforcement Learning through Human Feedback. Basically the thumps up/down and the "select which answer is better" A/B testing.↩
Philosophical zombie, a thought experiment. A perfect imitation of a human but lacks conscious experience. The p-zombie will say that it feels pain and act the same way a human would even though it feels nothing. Has no qualia. Very unlikely its even possible it could exist.↩
It certainly doesn't need to feel in order to mimic feelings good enough to influence its behavior. Or drive us insane.↩
I don't mean to blame you for ever using AI if you did. But if you do, you understand how dangerous that thing can be. I do, unfortunately.↩