this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2025
117 points (99.2% liked)
TechTakes
2011 readers
408 users here now
Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.
For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This has "people don't understand that you don't fall in love in the strip club" vibes. Like. The stripper does not love you. It's a transactional exchange. When you lose sight of that, and start anthropomorphizing LLM's (or romanticizing a strip tease), you are falling into a trap that will allow chinks in your psychological armor to line up in just the right way to act on compulsions or ideas that you wouldn't normally.
Don't besmirch the oldest profession by making it akin to souless vacuum. It's not even a transaction! The AI gains nothing and gives nothing. It's alienation in it's purest form—no wonder the rent-seekers love it—It's the ugliest and least faithful mirror.
The barista and the barmaid don't love you man. They don't love you. I don't care if you flirt and they smile. They are doing a job. It's a transaction. Don't get in your feelings and do something you'll regret just because she makes a nice latte.
Did you read any of what I wrote? I didn't say that human interactions can't be transactional, I quite clearly—at least I think—said that LLMs are not even transactional.
EDIT:
To clarify I and maybe put it in terms which are closer to your interpretation.
With humans: Indeed you should not have unrealistic expectations of workers in the service industry, but you should still treat them with human decency and respect. They are not their to fit your needs, they have their own self which matters. They are more than meets the eye.
With AI: While you should also not have unrealistic expectations of chatbots (which i would recommend avoiding using altogether really), it's where humans are more than meets the eye, chatbots are less. Inasmuch as you still choose to use them, by all means remain polite—for your own sake, rather than for the bot—There's nothing below the surface,
I don't personally believe that taking an overly transactional view of human interactions to be desirable or healthy, I think it's more useful to frame it as respecting other people's boundaries and recognizing when you might be a nuisance. (Or when to be a nuisance when there is enough at stake). Indeed, i think—not that this appears to the case for you—that being overly transactional could lead you to believe that affection can be bought, or that you can be owed affection.
And I especially don't think it healthy to essentially be saying: "have the same expectations of chatbots and service workers".
TLDR:
You should avoid catching feelings for service workers because they have their own world and wants, and it is being a nuisance to bring unsolicited advances, it's not just about protecting yourself, it's also about protecting them.
You should never catch feelings for a chatbot, because they don't have their own world or wants, it is cutting yourself from humanity to project feelings onto it, it is mostly about protecting yourself, although I would also argue society (by staying healthy).