zlacker

>>Jimmc4+(OP)
It is easy to point to loopy theories around superalignment, p(doom), etc. But you don't have to be hopped up on sci-fi to oppose something like GPT-4o. Low-latency response time is fine. The faking of emotions and overt references to Her (along with the suspiciously-timed relaxation of pornographic generations) are not fine. I suspect Altman/Brockman/Murati intended for this thing to be dangerous for mentally unwell users, using the exact same logic as tobacco companies.

>>nickle+491
One could also say that therapists prey on lonely people who pay them to talk to them and seem like they’re genuinely interested in them, when the therapist wouldn’t bother having a connection with these people once they stop paying. Which I suppose is true from a certain point of view. But from another point of view, sometimes people feel like they don’t have close friends or family to talk to and need something, even if it’s not a genuine love or friendship.

>>bnralt+Dg1
This is implying that therapy is nothing more than someone to talk to; if that’s your experience with therapy, then you should get another therapist.

>>kettro+rh1
I feel like this is easier said than done. There's not a great way (that I know of) to evaluate the quality/potential helpfulness of therapists... if only there were a Steam-like review system for them! There's ratemds.com, but not a lot of people use it, since there's not a central marketplace to find therapists to begin with (that I know of). I would love to be able to find good therapists locally and/or online. It just seems like such an expensive gamble every time.

When I was younger, I went through many therapy sessions with multiple professionals of different kinds (psychologists, psychiatrists, MFT (marriage and family therapists, social workers, etc.).

A couple of them were wonderful: thoughtful, caring, helpful, providing useful guidance with a compassionate ear.

Another couple tried to be helpful but were still in training themselves (this was at a college) and couldn't really provide any useful guidance.

One was going through a divorce of her own at the time and ended up crying in many of our sessions and having to abort them to deal with her own emotions – it was a tough time for her, and she's only human. I often tried to console her, but she wouldn't let me, so it made for a very awkward situation lol.

One of them had one a single session with me, charged me for it, and then told me she couldn't help me and to go somewhere else.

But the worst of them was an older guy who, despite the referrals and my history, thought I was faking mental illness. He dared me to attempt suicide, and when I eventually did (not because of him, but a separate romantic failure), he chuckled in my face and said, "Heh, you finally tried it, huh? Didn't think you would." This was an older psychiatrist in a small town – either the only one there, or one of very few – the kind of sleazy place that had a captive market and a whole bunch of pharma ads in the lobby, with young female pharma reps going in and out all day. What a racket =/ If I were wiser then, I would've reported him to the board and news media.

So, anecdotally, my success rate with therapists was only 2/7. To be fair, I was a pretty fucked up teenager and young adult, but still... the point is that "just find a better therapist" is often a difficult process. Depending on your insurance and area, there may not even be any other therapists with a waiting list of less than a few months, and even if you can get in, there's no guarantee they are good at their jobs AND a good fit for your personality and issues.

Think it's hard to find good devs? At least our line of work produces some measurable output (software/apps that run, or not, according to specs). How do you even measure the output of a therapist? Improvements to someone's life aren't going to happen overnight, and many never report back; the best successes may not bother to leave a review, the worst failures may end up dead before spreading the word. The rest probably just run out of sessions allowed by their insurance and try to move on with their lives, with unknown levels of positive or negative change.