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I tried using AI. It scared me.

Tom Scott · commentary · Watch on YouTube

LLMs & generative AIAI safety, AGI & impact

What it is

Tom Scott describes trying ChatGPT to fix his Gmail labels and being unsettled by how capable it was. He argues that we cannot know where we are on the technology curve, comparing it to Napster.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN cites it for the argument that we cannot tell whether AI is early or late on its sigmoid curve until hindsight.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2023, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “Tom Scotts video today re where we are on the AI's impact to society curve was interesting”

    Tom Scott on where we are on AI's impact curve

    neom, 2023-02 · Recommendation · in “The AI Bubble of 2023”

  2. “I enjoyed Tom Scott's YT video monologue about this.”

    Innovations follow a sigmoid curve; we only know the position in hindsight

    ortusdux, 2023-12 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Why is it taken for granted that LLM models will keep improving?”

  3. “I tried using AI. It scared me. - Tom Scott”

    Tom Scott on his unsettling experience with AI

    shagie, 2023-12 · Recommendation · in “The Singularity Is Nigh!”

  4. “Tom Scott's video[0] makes a very good argument: we don't know where we are on the technology curve.”

    Argues we don't know where we are on the technology curve

    chii, 2024-10 · Recommendation · in “Headstart accelerates software development by up to 100x with Claude”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: chatgpt, tom scott, technology curve, ai progress, napster

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