←back to thread

The slow collapse of critical thinking in OSINT due to AI

(www.dutchosintguy.com)
446 points walterbell | 1 comments | 03 Apr 25 18:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.214s | source
Show context
Aurornis ◴[04 Apr 25 00:46 UTC] No.43577188[source]▶
> Participants weren’t lazy. They were experienced professionals.

Assuming these professionals were great critical thinkers until the AI came along and changed that is a big stretch.

In my experience, the people who outsource their thinking to LLMs are the same people who outsourced their thinking to podcasts, news articles, Reddit posts, Twitter rants, TikTok videos, and other such sources. LLMs just came along and offered them opinions on demand that they could confidently repeat.

> The scary part is that many users still believed they were thinking critically, because GenAI made them feel smart

I don’t see much difference between this and someone who devours TikTok videos on a subject until they feel like an expert. Same pattern, different sources. The people who outsource their thinking and collect opinions they want to hear just have an easier way to skip straight to the conclusions they want now.

replies(7): >>43577644 #>>43577708 #>>43578846 #>>43580309 #>>43600948 #>>43611361 #>>43614276 #
jart ◴[04 Apr 25 02:12 UTC] No.43577644[source]▶
Yeah it's similar to how Facebook is blamed for social malaise. Or how alcohol was blamed before that.

It's always more comfortable for people to blame the thing rather than the person.

replies(5): >>43577713 #>>43577773 #>>43578791 #>>43582265 #>>43584177 #
InitialLastName ◴[04 Apr 25 02:37 UTC] No.43577773[source]▶
More than one thing can be causing problems in a society, and enterprising humans of lesser scruples have a long history of preying on the weaknesses of others for profit.
replies(2): >>43577781 #>>43592325 #
1. isaacremuant ◴[05 Apr 25 10:26 UTC] No.43592325[source]▶
Worse than enterprising humans are authoritarian humans who want to tell others how they should live, usually also exempting themselves from their rules.

They also prey on the weaknesses of humans and social appearances to do things for a "greater good".

There's a problem and we 'must do something' and if you're against doing the something I propose youre evil and I'll label you.

The real mindfuck is that sometimes, an unscrupulous entrepreneur only has to play your "societal harm fighting" game through politicians and they get their way and we lose.