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ChatGPT now knows what you do on other websites via ad collector

764 points · 395 comments · lmbbuchodi

mavsman · 1789923911 · focus · HN ↗
To me, this quote just about sums it up:
> The mechanism is standard adtech. What has no precedent is running it on an AI chat product.
As someone who has been well aware of this mechanism for quite some time, I still feel icky anytime I re-read the details of it.
What a time to be alive.
1. jsrozner · 1789925147 · focus · HN ↗
  People think they're interacting with an "intelligence," when actually they're just getting a maximally optimized Weizenbaum feed. We're living through the sloppification of the human mind.
  See e.g., <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/ai-chatbots-are-becoming-experts-changing-people-s-minds-what-s-their-secret" rel="nofollow">https://www.science.org/content/article/ai-chatbots-are-beco...
  1. brianleb · 1789932513 · focus · HN ↗
    Could you define (or link) to what "Weizenbaum feed" means/references? Too obscure for me but I'm interested. Thanks.
    fweimer · 1789932889 · focus · HN ↗
    Likely a reference to ELIZA: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA
    handoflixue · 1789938211 · focus · HN ↗
    Are there really people that can't tell the difference between ELIZA and something that can solve open Millennium Prize Problems in math?
    jsrozner · 1789941041 · focus · HN ↗
    It turns out, oddly enough, that it's possible for it to be both. AI can simultaneously be used to destroy the commons with slop and also make contributions to new math (though isn't the jury still out on whether part of the idea was stolen from human mathematicians?)
    handoflixue · 1789941195 · focus · HN ↗
    What does "destroy the commons with slop" have to do with ELIZA comparisons?
    jsrozner · 1789959803 · focus · HN ↗
    The people producing and consuming the slop don't realize that it is slop.
    jdiff · 1789962000 · focus · HN ↗
    In an embarrassing display, the manager over my arm of the company got told off by his manager for spamming him (and clients) with AI slop emails. And then was told by one of the regional managers for using Copilot generating a bunch of client-facing posters and images with phrasing that had not passed any sort of legal or basic fact checking.
    The people going all in on it don't realize the downsides, limitations, or understand how they come off to other people with it all.

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