alt Hacker NewsThose aren’t mutually exclusive; something can be both useful and a con.
When a con man sells you a cheap watch for an high price, what you get is still useful—a watch that tells the time—but you were also still conned, because what you paid for is not what was advertised. You overpaid because you were tricked about what you were buying.
LLMs are useful for many things, but they’re also not nearly as beneficial and powerful as they’re being sold as. Sam Altman, while entirely ignoring the societal issues raised by the technology (such as the spread of misinformation and unhealthy dependencies), repeatedly claims it will cure all cancers and other kinds of diseases, eradicate poverty, solve the housing crisis, democracy… Those are bullshit, thus the con description applies.
I think the following things can both be true at the same time:
* LLMs are a useful tool in a variety of circumstances.
* Sam Altman is personally incentivised to spout a great deal of hyped-up rubbish about both what LLMs are capable of, and can be capable of.