Dad's use of Chat GPT driving me nuts

[norahbones]

My dad (65) is obsessed with AI. He uses it for everything. If i chat to him on the phone, and ask him something he doesn't know the answer to, he will look it up and start reading from it like he is speaking from memory, I can just tell. I ask his advice and he will give me an ai answer. Over mundane things. I think his wife is quite into it to, as she is constantly on chat gpt. I messaged him the other day asking whether he preferred his down jacket or a different one he has for winter as I want to get one, and he sent me a response with the pros and cons of each one, with the chat gpt prompt left in. It is constant! I've told him I want to talk to him and value/prefer him and his opinions without the ai, but he just flat out denies using it. Honestly feel like I have lost him to AI. Thoughts? AIBU?

I am 64 and no interest in using AI beyond that which I have no control over.

I can manage my diary, emails, conversations, bowel movements on my own. I don't need something that will waste 10 gallons of water telling me something I know already.

The boss of one of the companies I work for who is 66 is obsessed with AI and uses it for everything within the company at every opportunity. My hours have dropped off (I am self employed) as a result, so some might say I am negatively biased, but I see some of the responses to customer queries/complaints etc and they just dont make sense. It often misses the whole point or puts in whole paragraphs about related stuff that just isn't applicable. It makes the company look stupid at times.

That's a bit of a generalisation . I'm 64 and have never used Chat GPT or whatever and have no interest in doing so.

And you can so tell as ChatGPT puts random words in bold.

How old are you? Why do you feel so far removed from “that generation” and so superior?

How tragic- it's pretty essential for humans to be able to think. When people use AI as an alternative to thinking they believe it to be unproblematic and trust it to do a better job than them but the problem for the human race is that heuristics in AI can result in errors because of oversimplification of the issue being addressed.

That's because of heuristics and the problems associated with oversimplification of information.

The backlash against AI among younger people is huge. It seems to be those in middle age who have embraced it the most.

This in itself is really worrying - there are things “it” doesn’t know. His childhood best friend, where he stayed on holiday etc.

There is a huge backlash amongst young people but I think there's obviously a realisation that they will have to live with the unintended consequences for many more years than older people.

That's a hopeful sign, though I haven't seen evidence of it yet. My impression is that university students and school children are using AI a lot.

Like what Auntie Doris said to Uncle Fred about their pet Dachshund at second cousin Petunia's wedding in 2003, and didn't Petunia's next-door neighbour do an excellent job of decorating the wedding cake.

I am a similar age and loathe AI. My friends in this age group don't use it for writing messages, but some use it for things like setting up a website and arranging a rota.

I use it and love it - this month I've used it for

designing posters and a party invitation, technical trouble shooting - it translated stuff in badly written manuals into specific advice for my issues, guidance on how to fill in tax returns, calculating CGT. pros and cons of investment types, explaining gilts, holiday recommendations.
These are all super helpful- I don't use it to write for me or order my thoughts and opinions.

Yes. Note I said in my extended family. The people who have brought AI into their daily lives for things ranging from how to roast a leg of lamb to how to improve a fold swing to how to turn down a party invitation, are the 70+ year olds. The 20-30-40ish generation use it at work. Some of them appreciate it for their work output, some are neutral, some reluctantly use it. They all HATE being on the receiving end. The younger folk in my family (eg my teens) hate it because “it’s not real”. This is what I’m seeing in my world.

I find that quite encouraging. The very young members of my family use AI all the time, those middle aged and upwards do not.

I’m over 50, not far removed at all and certainly not superior (where did you get that from?). But there’s a clear division between those of my parents’ / PILs’ generation who use it instead of Google (also more likely to get their news from Instagram…) and believe it unquestioningly/without discernment, and those who still eg read paper versions of the broadsheets and watch the new on TV or listen to the radio. I can see with my own eyes what it’s doing to relationships, although perhaps those who have gone down the AI path would always have wanted to prioritise personal comfort over uncomfortable-but-real in their retirement. Those who are still paper-and-pen remain engaged with the world, in all its nastinesses, and are closer to the young ones than the AI folk. Maybe it would always have been this way, but AI has certainly hastened things.

please see my previous answer to this question

I know that, my comment was a suggestion of how to engage with father in a way that minimises his reliance on AI

In our family it’s the young people using ai, for school and college work, and, wel, just about everything. They see it as normal. It may be just that it is more noticeable when older retired people use ai, because it seems anomalous.

AI gets so much stuff wrong, I was trying to find out how to transfer an IFISA (from a specific source) to a cash ISA with a BS and the first response was just fill out the online form, when I asked was it on the list (of pre approved sources) it comes back and says no and you can't do it online at all. The reason I was asking was because I thought it might be a problem but AI didn't until I told it.

I'm only ever asking AI questions if I actually have a problem (usually technology related) but very often it knows less than I do and I have to keep prodding it to get a sensible answer. It suggests something and I say I've tried that and it didn't work so it comes back, you are correct and tells me all the reasons why it could never work, so why tell me it would work in the first place? It's infuriating.

I've asked AI if you're being unreasonable and apparently you are.

Try asking what's on at the cinema in a place that hasn't had one since 1947.

It'll insist that there's a showing of the latest films (including ones that haven't been released yet) and would you like a link to restaurants that closed some time prior to the electrification of the railways and a bus route that was last operated by a bloke with a horse.

your message read that way. Maybe it was misconstrued in translation but it’s the sweeping generalisations based on age. For example, I’m younger than you and use ai. Know many people who do. Younger and older. And newspaper readers have been some of the most easily brainwashed - I mean, you’re literally still regurgitating what you’ve read from someone else’s mouth. How is that any different?