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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   3248 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 10, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I do not use LLMs as therapists or "buddies". There was one specific instance where I was genuinely depressed and anxious about my future finances, and Gemini 2.5 Pro did an excellent job and demonstrated great emotional intelligence while reassuring me. But that was mostly because it gave me concrete reasons not to worry, operating closer to a financial counselor than a standard therapist. Most therapists I know, while perfectly normal and decent people, do not give good investment advice.

(I was able to read its reasoning trace/COT, and to the extent that represents its internal cogitation, it seemed like it was making almost precisely the same emotional and logical considerations that I, as a human psychiatrist, would make in a similar situation)

At the same time, I think you can do worse than go to LLMs with your problems, as long as you don't use GPT-4o. I'm not tempted to do so, but I don't even use human therapy either.

What I do usually use them for, on a regular basis:

  • An intelligent search engine that hasn't been SEO'd to death. Even Google has realized how shitty it's become, and begun using AI to summarize answers. Unfortunately, Google uses just about the dumbest model it feels it can get away with in a bid to cut costs.

  • The ability to answer tip-of-the-tongue queries at superhuman levels of proficiency

  • Writing advice as a perfectly usable editor or second set of eyes.

  • It's probably easier to answer with the very limited subset of queries that I wouldn't use them for. They're good at most tasks, but far from perfect.

I do not use LLMs as therapists or "buddies".

You know, that shouldn't be unusual enough to count as based. And yet... based tbh.

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