I think this is a question about markets, like whether people are more likely to buy healthy versus unhealthy food. Clearly, unhealthy food has an enormous market, but healthy food is doing pretty well too.
Porn is common and it seems closer to unhealthy food. Therapy isn’t so common, but that’s partly because it’s expensive, and it’s not like being a therapist is a rare profession.
Are there healthy versus unhealthy social networks? Clearly, some are more unhealthy than others. I suspect it’s in some ways easier to build a business around mostly-healthy chatbots than to create a mostly-healthy social network, since you don’t need as big an audience to get started?
At least on the surface, alignment seems easier for a single-user, limited-intelligence chatbot than for a large social network, because are people are quite creative and rebellious. Short term, the biggest risk for a chatbot is probably the user corrupting it. (As we are seeing with people trying to break chatbots.)
Another market question: how intelligent would people want their chatbot to be? Sure, if you’re asking for advice, maybe more intelligence is better, but for companionship? Hard to say. Consider pets.
I think this is a question about markets, like whether people are more likely to buy healthy versus unhealthy food. Clearly, unhealthy food has an enormous market, but healthy food is doing pretty well too.
Porn is common and it seems closer to unhealthy food. Therapy isn’t so common, but that’s partly because it’s expensive, and it’s not like being a therapist is a rare profession.
Are there healthy versus unhealthy social networks? Clearly, some are more unhealthy than others. I suspect it’s in some ways easier to build a business around mostly-healthy chatbots than to create a mostly-healthy social network, since you don’t need as big an audience to get started?
At least on the surface, alignment seems easier for a single-user, limited-intelligence chatbot than for a large social network, because are people are quite creative and rebellious. Short term, the biggest risk for a chatbot is probably the user corrupting it. (As we are seeing with people trying to break chatbots.)
Another market question: how intelligent would people want their chatbot to be? Sure, if you’re asking for advice, maybe more intelligence is better, but for companionship? Hard to say. Consider pets.