{"id":2277,"date":"2025-07-22T16:49:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T23:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/?p=2277"},"modified":"2025-10-02T17:06:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T00:06:23","slug":"in-ai-chatbots-we-trust-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/2025\/07\/22\/in-ai-chatbots-we-trust-too-much\/","title":{"rendered":"In AI chatbots we trust \u2013\u00a0too much"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/trust_building_blocks.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"751\" src=\"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/trust_building_blocks.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/trust_building_blocks.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/trust_building_blocks-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/trust_building_blocks-768x563.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does trust require truth? Facts? With explanations of the speaker&#8217;s reasoning &amp; sources? Or just because &#8220;(A)I said it&#8217;s so&#8221; \u2013&nbsp;authoritatively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, what could go [1] \u2026 hardly anyone understands how their smartphone works \u2026 (as well as most electronics, eh). Nothing new there for technology \u2026 yet, nobody likes to be conned, fooled \u2026 but is resistance futile with AI? [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m reminded of the &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Magic_8_Ball\">Magic 8 Ball<\/a>&#8216; toy where people ask all kinds of yes-no questions, and receive brief affirmative (10), neutral (5), or negative (5) answers (designed by a psychology professor and internally on a 20-sided regular icosahedron die).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Is there an implicit &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Caveat_emptor\">buyer beware<\/a>&#8221; label or &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Good_Housekeeping\">Good Housekeeping Seal<\/a>&#8221; warranty?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These articles explore the nature of AI branding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Washington Post > &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2025\/06\/03\/dont-trust-ai-automation-bias\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">You are hardwired to blindly trust AI. Here&#8217;s how to fight it.<\/a>&#8221; by Shira Ovide (Junn 3, 2025) \u2013 Decades of research shows our tendency to treat machines like magical answer boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key terms and points<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Automation bias<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Conversational agility \u2260 smartness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The problem, AI researchers say, is that those warnings conveniently ignore how we actually use technology \u2014 as machines that spit out the right &#8220;answer.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;Generative AI systems have both an authoritative tone and the aura of infinite expertise \u2026&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We&#8217;re all prone to automation bias, especially when we&#8217;re stressed or worked up [just trying to survive].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 The Atlantic > &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/culture\/archive\/2025\/06\/artificial-intelligence-illiteracy\/683021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">What Happens When People Don&#8217;t Understand How AI Works<\/a>&#8221; by Tyler Austin Harper (Jun 6, 2025) [paywall]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, Butler&#8217;s &#8220;mechanical kingdom&#8221; [Erewhon] is no longer hypothetical, at least according to the tech journalist Karen Hao, who prefers the word empire. Her new book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman&#8217;s OpenAI, is part Silicon Valley expos\u00e9, part globe-trotting investigative journalism about the labor that goes into building and training large language models such as ChatGPT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It joins another recently released book \u2013 The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech&#8217;s Hype and Create the Future We Want, by the linguist Emily M. Bender and the sociologist Alex Hanna\u2014in revealing the puffery that fuels much of the artificial-intelligence business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both works, the former implicitly and the latter explicitly, suggest that the foundation of the AI industry is a scam.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A model is by definition a simplification of something, of a reality. AI (generative AI) uses models. Behind the curtain, under the hood, there be <strong>truth-less dragons<\/strong> &#8220;which don&#8217;t interact with [mirror] the world the way we do.&#8221; Shadow mirrors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Cnet > &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/tech\/services-and-software\/llms-and-ai-arent-the-same-everything-you-should-know-about-whats-behind-chatbots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">LLMs and AI Aren&#8217;t the Same. Everything You Should Know About What&#8217;s Behind Chatbots<\/a>&#8221; by Lisa Lacy, Katelyn Chedraoui (May 31, 2025) \u2013 Understanding how LLMs work is key to understanding how AI works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key terms<\/strong>: language model (&#8220;soothsayer for words&#8221;), chatbot, parameter, deep learning, training data, tokens, patterns, search engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Notes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[1] Compare with the stories in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Black_Mirror\">Black Mirror<\/a> series regarding the consequences of some new technology, an &#8220;unending pursuit of scientific and technological advancement.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[2] Equally futile, eh, like the freemium business model: Freemium 2.0 (ambrosia) \u2013 <strong>a 21st century fable<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wordpress.digivideoplus.com\/mediator_blog\/2025\/02\/04\/freemium-ambrosia-a-21st-century-fable\/\">Terms of the Tree (resistance is futile)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does trust require truth? Facts? With explanations of the speaker&#8217;s reasoning &amp; sources? Or just because &#8220;(A)I said it&#8217;s so&#8221; \u2013&nbsp;authoritatively. So, what could go [1] \u2026 hardly anyone understands how their smartphone works \u2026 (as well as most electronics, eh). Nothing new there for technology \u2026 yet, nobody likes to be conned, fooled \u2026 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[270,191,269,268,267,192,226,271,244],"class_list":["post-2277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer","category-research","tag-agility","tag-ai","tag-bias","tag-branding","tag-caveat","tag-chatbot","tag-chatgpt","tag-model","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2277"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2279,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277\/revisions\/2279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}