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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?
    joquarky · 1789938704 · focus · HN ↗
    Their ego doesn't let them see the difference.
    mapontosevenths · 1789940630 · focus · HN ↗
    Or perhaps their wallets. There are a lot of programmers here. Some of them think that AI is the death of their profession, rather than a change in it.
    "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair
    abustamam · 1789965296 · focus · HN ↗
    I was a programmer. AI is the evolution of my career. I'm in an interesting place. I've never been good at interviewing and I have certainly only gotten worse due to an admitted atrophy of thinking in "code." But I've been putting more effort in designing systems (agentic and otherwise) and building things at work as for fun.
    It's been an absolute boon to finally build out all of the fun side projects I had always dreamed of, and after showing one off to some people I might even be able to monetize.
    On the other hand I acknowledge that other people dont want to embrace LLM driven development for one reason or another, and I respect that. People got into the industry for different reasons , but code was always just a means to an ends for me.
    mapontosevenths · 1790101666 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm in a similar boat myself.
    I wonder though: Was the code ever the important part, or was it just the ability to reason through complex problems in a specific way that mattered?
    Code forces you to think in a specific and valuable way. You can do that in English as well, and maybe even get more done faster... but it's a skill that will take time to master.

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