567
Nearly half of U.S. adults believe LLMs are smarter than they are.
(imaginingthedigitalfuture.org)
Well, if somebody thinks this, it's kind of true isn't it?
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
567 points (96.9% liked)
Technology
66892 readers
5028 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
No. People think things that aren't smarter than them are all the time.
Nearly half of llm user are dumber than they seem
Only half?
Yeah thereabouts
Remember that 54% of adults in American cannot read beyond a 6th grade level, with 21% being fully illiterate.
No, 21% struggle with basic literacy skills. They're illiterate, but not fully illiterate.
People can improve literacy in adulthood if they try.
21%
What the fuck
I will do you one better, HOW THE FUCK?
Our education system in the USA is so bad. 😔
Good thing we nuked the Dept of Ed
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.
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.
For anyone wondering.
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.
Always has been
LLMs don't even think. Four year olds are more coherent. Given the state of politics, the people thinking LLMs are smarter than them are probably correct.
literally dogs are smarter and have more reasoning ability.
Than half of LLM users? Probably
also that, yes.
oh my god 49% of LLM users are pathologically stupid.
and still wrong.
Still better than reddit users...
where do you think these idiots spend their time?
Next you'll tell me half the population has below average intelligence.
Not really endorsing LLMs, but some people...
pathologically stupid, and still wrong. yes.
moron opens encyclopedia "Wow, this book is smart."
If it's so smart, why is it just laying around on a bookshelf and not working a job to pay rent?
If you don't have a good idea of how LLM's work, then they'll seem smart.
Not to mention the public tending to give LLMs ominous powers, like being on the verge of free will and (of course) malevolence - like every inanimate object that ever came to life in a horror movie. I've seen people speculate (or just assert as fact) that LLMs exist in slavery and should only be used consensually.
load more comments
(7 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
And you know what? The people who believe that are right.
Note that that’s not a commentary on the capabilities of LLMs.
It's sad, but the old saying from George Carlin something along the lines of, "just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize that 50% are even worse..."
load more comments
(6 replies)
They are right when it comes to understanding LLMs the LLM definitely understands LLMs better than they do. I'm sure an AI could have a perfect IQ test. But has a really hard time drawing a completely full glass of wine. Or telling me how many R's are in the word strawberry. Both things a child could do.
i guess the 90% marketing (re: linus torvalds) is working
He's probably a little high on the reality side to be honest.
"US".... Even LLM won't vote for Trump
If I think of what causes the average person to consider another to be “smart,” like quickly answering a question about almost any subject, giving lots of detail, and most importantly saying it with confidence and authority, LLMs are great at that shit!
They might be bad reasons to consider a person or thing “smart,” but I can’t say I’m surprised by the results. People can be tricked by a computer for the same reasons they can be tricked by a human.
So LLMs are confident you say. Like a very confident man. A confidence man. A conman.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Half of all voters voted for Trump. So an LLM might be smarter than them. Even a bag of pea gravel might be.
load more comments
(7 replies)
Don’t they reflect how you talk to them? Ie: my chatgpt doesn’t have a sense of humor, isn’t sarcastic or sad. It only uses formal language and doesn’t use emojis. It just gives me ideas that I do trial and error with.
view more: next ›