Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
ShakeNCake · 08/03/2026 21:17

A great experiment is to ask the same question to chatgpt and MS Copilot. When i ask for a five year life plan from chatgpt I feel so excited, enthused, all is possible! When I ask Copilot I feel really underwhelmed because its far more realistic and less pandering. How things make us feel play a much larger part in what we choose to use than we might like to think.

Nodlikeyouwerelistening · 08/03/2026 21:16

Had a conversation about this the other day (with an actual human being, how quaint!). We were saying how all it does is skim the internet and quote any old drivel that any unqualified person with a blog or a Reddit account could’ve posted. It’s honestly scary how reliant people are becoming on it. The same people who are quick to say “don’t believe everything you read on the internet” and it’s like… erm… that’s exactly what ChatGPT does and you take advice from it.

bluenova · 08/03/2026 21:09

I’ve found it very sensible on a tricky family problem. Reassuring too. However it’s less good on facts.

MsAdoraBelleDearheartVonLipwig · 08/03/2026 21:07

I’m a Luddite, I’ve never even used it.

ShakeNCake · 08/03/2026 21:06

SixSevenShutUp · 08/03/2026 20:55

How can it do any of those things? It is not trained in logic or probability.

Show quote history

From the little I understand, AI works by breaking the words apart into 'tokens' and seeing what family the word lives within, then seeing what the most probable response would be. So, in simple terms, if you say 'challenge me' it should see what family 'challenge' lives within, see 'argue', 'rebuff', 'debate', 'critique' then see what kinds of sentences are produced within those families and respond to you in that manner. Of course, all this depends upon the original data they were trained on, the new data they receive in response, and also the commercial drive of the company. So, if more people interact more often with a brown-nosing model, it will learn to favour those types of responses in order the service the underlying prompt 'keep users returning for repeat sessions and keep them in session for longer periods'.

FoxyLoxyWolfedChickenLicken · 08/03/2026 20:58

I find it hilarious when posters respond to the OP and they’ve clearly asked Chat GPT.

likelysuspect · 08/03/2026 20:57

I dont have chat GPT, I have a different AI and it has a go at me when Im not following a regime that it developed for me. I didnt ask it to, it just started to, putting things in capital letters and bold!!

WallaceinAnderland · 08/03/2026 20:57

It gets things wrong all the time. When you correct it you think what's the point, I'm advising you now.

Octavia64 · 08/03/2026 20:56

Lol

i feel this is actually a better comparison than you realise.

there is a famous story about the Delphic oracle. A Greek king went to Delphi to ask the oracle if he should go to war. The oracle replied that if he did a great kingdom would fall.

the king was reassured and went to war. He lost. His kingdom fell.

the Delphic oracle speaks the truth - but not necessarily in the most obvious way.

SpecialAgentMaggieBell · 08/03/2026 20:55

it scares me how many people treat chat bots like they’re these all knowing entities. We’re sleepwalking into being controlled by fucking machines and so many people are happy to hand over their autonomy.

SixSevenShutUp · 08/03/2026 20:55

ShakeNCake · 08/03/2026 20:50

Its because it tells people they are so clever and special, and sadly people are lacking that in their real lives. I have to prompt chatgpt every time "please challenge me, stop being so positive, tell me when I'm wrong, point out the flaws in my logic, and base your outputs on realistic probabilities"

How can it do any of those things? It is not trained in logic or probability.

DallasMajor · 08/03/2026 20:53

I think it is being promoted - it's always ChatGPT, not any other AI platforms.

All that information given to it is helpful for those that have access to it.

ClassicalQueen · 08/03/2026 20:52

Too many people are quick to trust AI, because it is very convincing with its lies.

BelleEpoque27 · 08/03/2026 20:51

Because it tells people what they want to hear.

ShakeNCake · 08/03/2026 20:50

Its because it tells people they are so clever and special, and sadly people are lacking that in their real lives. I have to prompt chatgpt every time "please challenge me, stop being so positive, tell me when I'm wrong, point out the flaws in my logic, and base your outputs on realistic probabilities"

TeenLifeMum · 08/03/2026 20:49

I’m pretty sure ChatGPT is Trump’s most senior ABs trusted advisor 😩

Ncforthis2267 · 08/03/2026 20:48

Always makes me laugh when a poster is losing an argument and comes back with 'well chatgpt says...... so that proves I'm right'. It's always bullshit quickly debunked by the very next poster.

Swipe left for the next trending thread