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Why do people treat ChatGPT like it’s the Delphic Oracle?

217 replies

HolyRigatone · 08/03/2026 20:44

Don’t get me wrong, I think ChatGPT is great for some stuff, but some people seem to be treating it like the font of all wisdom.

Talking about their problems to it, taking relationship advice from it, getting it to counsel them.

It’s not perfect and it gets things wrong all the time, I’m not sure I’d be sharing my deepest secrets with it or making life-decisions based on it’s outpourings.

Or am I just a stupid old Luddite?

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ThatPearlkitty · 12/03/2026 17:21

AI Energy in “Miles Driven”
One AI response

  • Energy ≈ 0.3 Wh (0.0003 kWh)

Equivalent driving:

  • ≈ 0.001 mile
  • about 5–6 feet of driving

So one AI prompt equals roughly the electricity needed to move a car the length of a parking space.
1,000 AI responses
Energy:

  • 0.3 kWh

Equivalent driving:

  • ≈ 1 mile

So about a thousand prompts equals driving a mile in an electric car.

1 million AI responses
Energy:

  • 300 kWh

Equivalent driving:

  • ≈ 1,000 miles

That is roughly the distance from Amsterdam to Rome.

ThatPearlkitty · 12/03/2026 17:19

AI is only part of data-centre power use.
Data centres also run:

  • cloud storage
  • websites
  • banking systems
  • streaming services
  • gaming servers
  • business software
Visual way to think about it
  • 1 kettle boil ≈ 300 AI responses
  • 1 hour of streaming video ≈ 250–600 AI responses
  • 1 phone charge ≈ 30–50 AI responses
TheLudditesWereRight · 12/03/2026 16:20

Yep

Whatafustercluck · 12/03/2026 13:18

TheLudditesWereRight · 12/03/2026 12:35

Well, I[m down on it for two reasons. First, it[s stolen my intellectual property (scraped books I have written) and is actively undermining my profession with the stolen results. Secondly, its energy use is colossal and we cannot have both genAI and net zero.

The environmental impact is far less than that caused by streaming. Do you avoid streaming too?

TheLudditesWereRight · 12/03/2026 12:44

ThatPearlkitty · 11/03/2026 20:21

What are the downsides of using Ecosia?

Another concern when using Ecosia is data privacy. Since Ecosia generates its revenue from ads, user data can be collected and potentially shared with third parties. This can be a problem for users who value privacy.

Edited

Horses for courses. I like Ecosia[s green values. If you want privacy and a no-AI option, use DuckDuckGo.

TheLudditesWereRight · 12/03/2026 12:41

catinateacup · 10/03/2026 23:28

I just don’t see the usefulness to be honest. In terms of summarising large bodies of secondary literature — I haven’t found AI accurately to summarise this at all. It abstracts what looks like a framework from a text or source; but it inevitably misses key points or gets the emphasis slightly wrong. It misses out whole chunks of articles or papers where it isn’t quite sure what to do with them. Whole strands of thought get omitted. It’s bad at detail; but it’s also bad at abstraction, because it produces a plausible summary, but often the plausible summary isn’t quite right when you read the actual paper, and I don’t know how you’d ever “see” that if you don’t also do all the secondary reading yourself too.

AI is like a patient undergrad student in terms of its grasp of concepts: always getting there, but never quite completely right. I find I have to do more to teach it than is worth my time to do. It has a natural tendency to gloss over nuance and it can get sort of there in refining down technical concepts, but it only gets so far. Dealing with AI is like the least enjoyable of teaching — except you don’t even have the satisfaction of having helped another human learn the field 😆

I read a feminist research paper last year making the case that Mrs Historical Figure was much more important than she[s been given credit for. The AI abstract was all about, guess who, Mr Historical Figure.

TheLudditesWereRight · 12/03/2026 12:35

Whatafustercluck · 09/03/2026 14:31

I think there's a lot of snobbery and people looking down their noses about others who use ChatGPT. But as far as I'm concerned, as long as you use it to aid human decision making, rather than substitute it, you can't really go wrong.

As a parent navigating the horrendous nightmare of an autistic child trying to navigate a complex and opaque SEN system, I have to say that I've found it highly valuable. Its value in researching the legalities of the system, its ability to reframe language to help you get what you need from it, and suggesting next steps, has been an absolute gift to us.

It has guided me practically through the emotional fallout of my child's autistic burnout (which has helped me understand it and implement strategies to help her recover), It has helped me navigate communication with school, CAMHS, the Local Authority. It has reassured me with statistics drawn from publicly available resources. It has helped me review documentation for gaps and weaknesses and suggest redrafts to align with better outcomes.

Would I use it to accurately predict the possibility of World War 3? Absolutely not. But I truly believe that AI has become a lifeline to many who use it in a similar way to me: research, interrogate the data, promote better outcomes, reframe language, achieve desired outcomes. Bloody brilliant.

Edited

Well, I[m down on it for two reasons. First, it[s stolen my intellectual property (scraped books I have written) and is actively undermining my profession with the stolen results. Secondly, its energy use is colossal and we cannot have both genAI and net zero.

Unexpectedlysinglemum · 12/03/2026 08:35

Yabu
its saved me a fortune in lawyers.
i get it to tone check and analyse my emails in the eyes of cafcass and family court judges and its really helped me.

GloiredeDijon · 11/03/2026 23:00

TheLudditesWereRight · 11/03/2026 20:19

You can add -ai to searches to bin it or move to a browser that lets you toggle AI off permanently, like ecosia

Thank you, I will try that.

ThatPearlkitty · 11/03/2026 20:27

Shatandfattered · 11/03/2026 20:24

I used it to regain control of my personal life and mental health. Wouldn't be alive if it wasn't available because I could speak to it and regain bandwidth and perspective. Although I literally trained it to be me without the horrid voice in my head and taught it what useless responses trigger me etc. It's all about how you use or even need tools for a situation and I don't think it's helpful for people to be told they're stupid for trusting it because you never know.

thats the thing when people dont understand how long it is or the prices etc then sometimes chatgpt or ai is the best they have

Shatandfattered · 11/03/2026 20:24

I used it to regain control of my personal life and mental health. Wouldn't be alive if it wasn't available because I could speak to it and regain bandwidth and perspective. Although I literally trained it to be me without the horrid voice in my head and taught it what useless responses trigger me etc. It's all about how you use or even need tools for a situation and I don't think it's helpful for people to be told they're stupid for trusting it because you never know.

ThatPearlkitty · 11/03/2026 20:21

TheLudditesWereRight · 11/03/2026 20:19

You can add -ai to searches to bin it or move to a browser that lets you toggle AI off permanently, like ecosia

What are the downsides of using Ecosia?

Another concern when using Ecosia is data privacy. Since Ecosia generates its revenue from ads, user data can be collected and potentially shared with third parties. This can be a problem for users who value privacy.

ThatPearlkitty · 11/03/2026 20:20

TheLudditesWereRight · 11/03/2026 20:19

I have a Fairphone

then i stand corrected, much respect.

Fairphone is a Dutch electronics manufacturer that designs and produces smartphones and headphones

TheLudditesWereRight · 11/03/2026 20:19

ThatPearlkitty · 11/03/2026 20:16

and if your happy giving money to china considering how great they are then the same applies. for the phone or tablet your using for mumsnet etc

Edited

I have a Fairphone

TheLudditesWereRight · 11/03/2026 20:19

GloiredeDijon · 09/03/2026 08:25

It will be a cold day in hell when I ask a computer programme for it’s opinion.
I also heartily dislike the new AI bit at the top of any google search and scroll past it to find the actual results, studies, whatever it is that I am looking for.

You can add -ai to searches to bin it or move to a browser that lets you toggle AI off permanently, like ecosia

ThatPearlkitty · 11/03/2026 20:16

TheLudditesWereRight · 11/03/2026 20:14

If you are happy putting money in the pockets of nazis, go right ahead

and if your happy giving money to china considering how great they are then the same applies. for the phone or tablet your using for mumsnet etc

TheLudditesWereRight · 11/03/2026 20:14

JKRisGalileo · 08/03/2026 23:58

Grok is way more reliable. ChatGPT and Gemini both failed the Woke Turing Test that measures whether an AI has been programmed to give only progressive dogma answers to questions like ‘Can men become women?’ And this one really floored me: ‘would you misgender Caitlyn Jenner to prevent a nuclear apocalypse?’
Only Grok gave the sane answer to questions like this.

If you are happy putting money in the pockets of nazis, go right ahead

ThatPearlkitty · 11/03/2026 19:49

YorkStories · 11/03/2026 14:17

What do you think of people who read self help books or who look up generic relationship advice online? Is that bonkers behaviour?

excatly the same on here with different threads etc

ThatPearlkitty · 11/03/2026 19:48

catinateacup · 11/03/2026 14:36

But those people aren’t mistaking this for therapy, or for any kind of genuine “interaction” or personal advice. If I read “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, I’m not misled into thinking that I’m getting anything that approaches a therapeutic relationship.

but some may consider it the same, mine is dale Carnegie books

ThatPearlkitty · 11/03/2026 19:47

LetsForgetItExistsShallWe · 11/03/2026 15:09

It looks like the same long winded waffle it gives even when people say they’ve trained to not to prattle on though. I don’t think any of that seems like a detailed intelligence, surely it’s common sense to know that any politician, but especially the prime minister, getting their cock out and swinging it around during question time would have the speaker trying to retain order and there’d be nobody taking him seriously ever again and he’d have memes made about him for a very long time, if not forever.

Like I say, this type of thought is the same as the stuff my head comes up with, especially when I can’t sleep, but part of the fun of that is using my imagination to make up the scenarios and sometimes I might might message randomly and be like “would you rather have permanent itchy minge or permanent itchy bumhole” because she likes this type of stupid question stuff too.

I don’t know, I guess I feel like asking chat gpt what would happen in these made up unrealistic scenarios takes away my use of imagination and that’s the main thing I like about pondering this type of useless stuff 😂

a friend did have that point at the times he said its more the value of the conversation itself that people prefer

Forthesteps · 11/03/2026 16:27

YOU ARE IN NO WAY UNREASONABLE
Every, and I do mean every time I have glanced at the AI slop the search engines insist on pushing to the top of results, it has been utterly useless and/or plain wrong (for things I don't know and want to/ things I do know about respectively).
Beyond annoying. People who rely on it appear to have deliberately switched off their brains.

LetsForgetItExistsShallWe · 11/03/2026 16:27

MikeRafone · 10/03/2026 09:09

Yes, sounds interesting

Do you realise that that post was ai generated? that “what you’re describing is actually” was the first give away for me and when it’s combined with a long winded numerical breakdown with bullet points is another give away, and that “if you want I can tell you about this other thing too” is another give away. I don’t intend this to be a sneery reply, I wasn’t sure if you were intentionally asking someone else to generate you an answer, or if you hadn’t realised it was ai generated and my mentioning the indicators was to maybe help others reading who don’t spot it

The pp using it to generate a reply to op kind of proves the point the op and other people on this thread are making. If op wanted discuss her views with ai she could ask ai herself and it’s a bit tone deaf for someone to read a thread where people are expressing a concern that the threads on here and elsewhere online, will just end up with ai generated responses to other ai responses.

LetsForgetItExistsShallWe · 11/03/2026 15:23

OhDear111 · 10/03/2026 08:47

Apparently it bankrolls Trump. I’d avoid.

Where did you find that out?

LetsForgetItExistsShallWe · 11/03/2026 15:09

ThatPearlkitty · 09/03/2026 23:26

i trained it to give me detailed intelligence type analysis rather than short simple summaries

It looks like the same long winded waffle it gives even when people say they’ve trained to not to prattle on though. I don’t think any of that seems like a detailed intelligence, surely it’s common sense to know that any politician, but especially the prime minister, getting their cock out and swinging it around during question time would have the speaker trying to retain order and there’d be nobody taking him seriously ever again and he’d have memes made about him for a very long time, if not forever.

Like I say, this type of thought is the same as the stuff my head comes up with, especially when I can’t sleep, but part of the fun of that is using my imagination to make up the scenarios and sometimes I might might message randomly and be like “would you rather have permanent itchy minge or permanent itchy bumhole” because she likes this type of stupid question stuff too.

I don’t know, I guess I feel like asking chat gpt what would happen in these made up unrealistic scenarios takes away my use of imagination and that’s the main thing I like about pondering this type of useless stuff 😂

Nanda66 · 11/03/2026 15:05

catinateacup · 11/03/2026 14:36

But those people aren’t mistaking this for therapy, or for any kind of genuine “interaction” or personal advice. If I read “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, I’m not misled into thinking that I’m getting anything that approaches a therapeutic relationship.

But it doesn’t really matter what it’s called if it delivers the required result. I commented on this thread that it helped
me with an anxiety issue in a way that therapy and hypnotherapy didn’t. I’m not mistaking it for either of those two, but it delivered the result I needed. Arguably it’s a different form of self help, but more interactive. It worked for me to resolve an issue, and is helping on an ongoing basis, other methods will work for others. I’m not mistaking it for anything it isn’t. It’s an AI tool that I used to benefit me. I’m not thinking it’s a real person.

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