this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Half of LLM users (49%) think the models they use are smarter than they are, including 26% who think their LLMs are “a lot smarter.” Another 18% think LLMs are as smart as they are. Here are some of the other attributes they see:

  • Confident: 57% say the main LLM they use seems to act in a confident way.
  • Reasoning: 39% say the main LLM they use shows the capacity to think and reason at least some of the time.
  • Sense of humor: 32% say their main LLM seems to have a sense of humor.
  • Morals: 25% say their main model acts like it makes moral judgments about right and wrong at least sometimes. Sarcasm: 17% say their prime LLM seems to respond sarcastically.
  • Sad: 11% say the main model they use seems to express sadness, while 24% say that model also expresses hope.
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Even if an ai has access to more facts and information you should feel confident in your human ability to reason through the data you do know, search new information and process it in the context.

If you think an ai does all this better than you then you need to try harder.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

As far as I can tell from the article, the definition of "smarter" was left to the respondents, and "answers as if it knows many things that I don't know" is certainly a reasonable definition -- even if you understand that, technically speaking, an LLM doesn't know anything.

As an example, I used ChatGPT just now to help me compose this post, and the answer it gave me seemed pretty "smart":

what's a good word to describe the people in a poll who answer the questions? I didn't want to use "subjects" because that could get confused with the topics covered in the poll.

"Respondents" is a good choice. It clearly refers to the people answering the questions without ambiguity.

The poll is interesting for the other stats it provides, but all the snark about these people being dumber than LLMs is just silly.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Well, if somebody thinks this, it's kind of true isn't it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

No. People think things that aren't smarter than them are all the time.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Nearly half of llm users are dumber than they seem

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah thereabouts

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm starting to think an article referring to LLM as AI is s red flag, while them referring to them as LLM is a green flag.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Always has been

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Remember that 54% of adults in American cannot read beyond a 6th grade level, with 21% being fully illiterate.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

No, 21% struggle with basic literacy skills. They're illiterate, but not fully illiterate.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

People can improve literacy in adulthood if they try.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I will do you one better, HOW THE FUCK?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Home-skoolin

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Our education system in the USA is so bad. 😔

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

Good thing we nuked the Dept of Ed

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Nearly half of U.S. adults

Half of LLM users (49%)

No, about a quarter of U.S. adults believe LLMs are smarter than they are. Only about half of adults are LLM users, and only about half of those users think that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

to be fair they're American and they're LLM users, so for a selected group like that odds are they really are as stupid as LLMs.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

They are. Unless you can translate what I'm saying to any language I tell you to on the fly, I'm going to assume that anyone that tells me they are smarter than LLMs are lower on the spectrum than usual. Wikipedia and a lot of libraries are also more knowledgeable than me, who knew. If I am grateful for one thing, it is that I am not one of those people whose ego has to be jizzing everywhere, including their perception of things.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The statement is "smarter", not "possesses more information". None of the things you listed (LLMs, libraries, Wikipedia, etc.) have any capacity to reason.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The only thing you've argued is that you are choosing one particular definition of smart, ignoring the one I was using, and going all Grammar Nazi into how that's the only possible definition. As I've said, if I am grateful for one thing, it is that I am not one of those people whose ego ^is^ ^shallow^ ^enough^ ^to^ has ^/have^ to be jizzing everywhere, including their perception of things.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

only boomers and tech-unsavy people think that.

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