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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2182 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 7, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Why would anyone pay the $20/month? To be impressed? It wasn't long ago that someone asked what they're supposed to use AI for, and the response was a list of about a dozen completely frivolous things that can only be described as glorified low-grade entertainment. I'm sure some people find it useful for niche things. But for most people it's nothing more than a glorified search engine, and expecting people to spend money for it is like asking them to pay for a subscription to Google.

I am genuinely taken aback by this take. I know you're being sincere, but I can't understand where you're coming from. It's easier to say what LLMs can't do for me. And I very clearly benefit from the additional intelligence the paid models provide. They're not eating white collar work for no reason, they can do a surprising proportion of the work that a regular human can do on a computer.

Ignoring code (and writing/smut), non-exclusive, I've used Grok for :

  • car repair
  • air conditioner repair
  • repairing a three-phase fluid pump (fried IGBT, and entire chip line was out of production)
  • hobbyist drone assembly work
  • 3d printing model production
  • transcribing (public info) work documents
  • reviewing (public info) work document output for clarity and precision
  • translation.
  • designing a small youth-oriented faux-stained glass project.
  • testing internal policies against a compliance requirement for completeness before (outside, very expensive) human review

Some of these might have been solvable with google (air conditioner motor is pretty much a process of elimination thing, although even there Grok was a lot better at finding a local seller than Google is). Some of them not: the plain language search for a crankshaft position sensor error was universally 'bring it to a shop', and I'm very bad at 3d modeling. I'm skeptical that they're all frivolous.

I've gotten a few more uses from Claude, though I'll admit it tends to be something I burn more code-facing or writing-facing.

If LLMs cost 20 $/mo for "low-grade entertainment", they're in the same league as Netflix (without advertisements, 20 $/mo) and YouTube (without advertisements, 16 $/mo paid monthly or 13 $/mo paid annually). It's my understanding that lots of people buy temporary subscriptions to streaming services, in order to test them out or to watch a specific platform-exclusive show.

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