Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, thinks its „cool” young people use ChatGPT for life advice
In a recent talk, the CEO of OpenAI shared that young people more often use AI to make tough decisions. But is ChatGPT the best tool for life advice?
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, thinks it’s “cool” that young people go to ChatGPT for life advice. He spoke at the Sequoia Capital AI Ascent earlier this month, answering questions about the generative AI program, and seemed to prove that he is a fan of consumers' overreliance on his product and forgoing human relationships and connections. ChatGPT can be a helpful research tool when it’s not giving out false information, but it can’t yet replace human interactions.
Sam Altman thinks it’s “cool” that people go to ChatGPT for life advice
When asked about the topic of AI uses for young people, Altman explained that most people in their 30s and older think of ChatGPT as a Google alternative, while younger people take it a step further. “They don’t really make life decisions without asking ChatGPT what they should do…” said Altman, adding that ChatGPT “has the full context on every person in their life and what they’ve talked about…” originally spotted by PCGamer. It makes sense that someone who profits off people using their product would think this is “cool,” but at the end of the day, it is more worrying than anything else.
Posting on Reddit for advice can be a great way to get a slew of unbiased, random perspectives from hundreds of strangers. But none of those people on Reddit can know every detail of the story, understand who you are, your history, and the full context of the situation. That is something that only friends and family can begin to understand. ChatGPT is the same way. Use it as a tool to help you code, help you brainstorm some ideas, or maybe correct your grammar. But even though it has near-unlimited amounts of information, it doesn’t have the nuance, context, or social complexity to give advice properly. Hopefully, people using it this way take the advice with a giant block of salt and supplement it with advice from real people in their lives, too.
Speaking of Reddit, this story was shared there, and some of the comments had some choice words. The top comment worries that OpenAI aims to get people addicted to the advice. “I know lots of people who already got addicted to LLMs, using them like oracles, not really being able to make a decision on their own (from travel planning to investment advice), and this is what sociopaths like Altman want…” Having a tool like this can take the pressure away from talking to people about tough topics, such as moving on from a breakup, deciding whether to quit your job, or moving away from your hometown. But it doesn’t have your best interests at heart. It will regurgitate information at you as you request it, not consider what is best for you in your exact situation.
Ultimately, all we know from this Q&A with Sam Altman is that some young people are asking ChatGPT some tough questions. We don’t know for sure that ChatGPT is the only source they are going to. My advice: talk to the people around you. If you don’t have people around you, find good people who will have your back and look out for you. It’s easy to think there are many terrible people out there, but there are many great people too.
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