Gold stars are for nerds
May. 8th, 2025 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI am of two minds about this Tumblr post:
On one hand, I harbor an immense dislike of generative AI, and it fills my heart with joy to see such large numbers of people treating it with absolute disdain. On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of online virtue signaling, and this example is a little silly.
I have most definitely opened ChatGPT. I spent about an hour experimenting with it one morning back in 2023, which was long enough for me to see everything I needed to see. I spent another hour writing a post explaining why ChatGPT is stupid and I don’t like it. I followed up on that post with a few more essays expanding on my initial negative impressions.
But, I mean… It’s free? For now, at least, you don’t need to have an account to use the website. You can turn off cookies or use the incognito mode on your browser if you don’t want it to poison your online space.
And, if generative AI is an issue you care about, why wouldn’t you want to see what it is and how it works? Do you just believe what people say online without verifying information for yourself? Wouldn’t you want to see what ChatGPT-generated text looks like so that you can learn to avoid it? And let’s be real, aren’t you at least a little curious about the technology that’s rapidly changing society?
If you’re not curious about technology, or if you’re too lazy to research something before you critique it, why would you want to brag about that?
But also, have you never been in a situation where you’re at the end of a ten-hour workday and you can’t leave your desk until you send a reply to someone’s unhinged email? Have you never had an insane boss or professor who will make your life miserable if your writing contains traces of a dialect of English they don’t share? Have you never had to compose an important message in a notoriously idiosyncratic language (ie, English) that you didn’t grow up speaking?
If not, does that make you a superior person who deserves praise?
The above questions contain real criticisms of ChatGPT. For example: being forced to work beyond reasonable expectations is a labor issue that ChatGPT only exacerbates. Sure, but do you expect an exhausted admin assistant to fix capitalism? Also: being forced to write in 100% “standard” English under threat of severe penalty is a form of discrimination, and it could be argued that ChatGPT is only making this issue worse. Sure, but is it your individual responsibility to stand against the bigotry of a postcolonial world every second of every hour of every day?
I’m not saying that there aren’t real issues with ChatGPT – again, I fucking hate this idiot fucking software – but the idea that you’re somehow virtuous for not being curious about it or not ever having had a reason to consider using it is ridiculous.
In other words: You’re not wrong, Walter; you’re just an asshole.
I should say that I'm not calling out anyone, obviously! I'm taking shots at targets on a straw man here to try to articulate a broader argument, but also. I hope this Tumblr post gets a million notes by the end of the week.
On one hand, I harbor an immense dislike of generative AI, and it fills my heart with joy to see such large numbers of people treating it with absolute disdain. On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of online virtue signaling, and this example is a little silly.
I have most definitely opened ChatGPT. I spent about an hour experimenting with it one morning back in 2023, which was long enough for me to see everything I needed to see. I spent another hour writing a post explaining why ChatGPT is stupid and I don’t like it. I followed up on that post with a few more essays expanding on my initial negative impressions.
But, I mean… It’s free? For now, at least, you don’t need to have an account to use the website. You can turn off cookies or use the incognito mode on your browser if you don’t want it to poison your online space.
And, if generative AI is an issue you care about, why wouldn’t you want to see what it is and how it works? Do you just believe what people say online without verifying information for yourself? Wouldn’t you want to see what ChatGPT-generated text looks like so that you can learn to avoid it? And let’s be real, aren’t you at least a little curious about the technology that’s rapidly changing society?
If you’re not curious about technology, or if you’re too lazy to research something before you critique it, why would you want to brag about that?
But also, have you never been in a situation where you’re at the end of a ten-hour workday and you can’t leave your desk until you send a reply to someone’s unhinged email? Have you never had an insane boss or professor who will make your life miserable if your writing contains traces of a dialect of English they don’t share? Have you never had to compose an important message in a notoriously idiosyncratic language (ie, English) that you didn’t grow up speaking?
If not, does that make you a superior person who deserves praise?
The above questions contain real criticisms of ChatGPT. For example: being forced to work beyond reasonable expectations is a labor issue that ChatGPT only exacerbates. Sure, but do you expect an exhausted admin assistant to fix capitalism? Also: being forced to write in 100% “standard” English under threat of severe penalty is a form of discrimination, and it could be argued that ChatGPT is only making this issue worse. Sure, but is it your individual responsibility to stand against the bigotry of a postcolonial world every second of every hour of every day?
I’m not saying that there aren’t real issues with ChatGPT – again, I fucking hate this idiot fucking software – but the idea that you’re somehow virtuous for not being curious about it or not ever having had a reason to consider using it is ridiculous.
In other words: You’re not wrong, Walter; you’re just an asshole.
I should say that I'm not calling out anyone, obviously! I'm taking shots at targets on a straw man here to try to articulate a broader argument, but also. I hope this Tumblr post gets a million notes by the end of the week.
