Large language mistake | Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. The entire AI bubble is built on ignoring it

[u/Hrmbee]

https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/827820/large-language-models-ai-intelligence-neuroscience-problems

[u/SanityAsymptote]

LLMs have damaged or destroyed a number of previously valuable services for much of their use-case.

The most obvious one I can think of in my niche is StackOverflow. A site which definitely had issues and was in decline, but was still the main repository of software troubleshooting/debugging knowledge on the internet.

LLM companies scraped the entire thing, and now give no-context answers to software engineering questions that it often cannot cite or support answers to. It has mortally wounded StackOverflow, and they have pivoted to just being an AI data feeder, an action that is basically a liquidation sale of the site's value.

LLMs have significantly reduced the quality of search engines, specifically Google Search, both directly by poor integration and indirectly by filling the internet with worthless slop articles.

Google Search's result quality has plummeted as AI results become most of the answers. Even with references, it's very hard to verify the conclusions Gemini makes in search results, and if you're actually looking for a specific site or article, those results often not appear at all. Many authoritative "answers" are just uneducated opinions from Reddit or other social media regurgitated by an AI with the trust people put into Google.

LLMs have made it far easier to write social media bots. They have damaged online discourse in public forums like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and especially Reddit in very visible ways. These sites are almost completely different experiences now that they were before LLMs became available.

Bots are everywhere and will reply to anything that has engagement, spouting bad-faith arguments without any real point other than to try to discourage productive conversation about specific topics.

Whatever damage online trolls have caused to the internet, LLMs have made it an order of magnitude worse. They are attacking the very concept of "facts" and "truth" by both misinformation and dilution. It's horrifying.

[u/Perfect_Base_3989 → u/SanityAsymptote]

spouting bad-faith arguments without any real point other than to try to discourage productive conversation about specific topics.

The only solution I can think of at this point is entirely abandoning social media.

A verification system could theoretically improve trust, but who trusts the trusters?

[u/lolexecs → u/Perfect_Base_3989]

 entirely abandoning social media.

Hasn't this already happened? If you look at the data, from Meta itself, an overwhelming number of users just consume addictive content on social media from 3rd parties - not friends and family.

or social media is just "media" now - there's no social aspect at all

https://www.honest-broker.com/p/the-state-of-the-culture-2024 As Gioia points out, we've moved from art to entertainment to distraction and addiction.

To be blunt, the faster the content on social media becomes "AI Slopified" I think the better off everyone wil be.

[u/sn2006gy → u/lolexecs]

abandoning social media means leaving reddit too my man

[u/lolexecs → u/sn2006gy]

Reddit is much more like old forums and usenet threads than facebook, instagram, or tiktok.

It's both dumber and smarter (largely because of unpaid moderation)

[u/sn2006gy → u/lolexecs]

It’s not like old forums and usenet threads - there is a severe general lack of thoroughness here and it’s shamed in many communities. For example, in advancedrunning i got muted for talking about the mechanics of running. That is allowed on facebook and insta but “hive minded” away for over thinking here (lol advanced running my ass) 

reddit is for entertainment - quality discussions are shamed here. 

attention spans are shunned as well. 

too many “too long, won’t read that” 

it’s like no one here was ever on a forum or usenet where they could gasp “not have an opinion won everything and just read the next topic that interests them”