This is a case of corporation taking advantage of technically idiotic userbase, which is most of the general public. OpenAI using a dark pattern so that users can't easily unchecked that box nor making that text that says "this can be indexed by search engines" brightly visible.

Modern LLMs can serve you for most tasks while running locally on your machine.

Something like GPT4ALL will do the trick on any platform of your choosing if you have at least 8gb of RAM (and for most people nowadays it's true).

It has a simple, idiot-proof GUI and doesn't collect data if you don't allow it to. It's also open source, and, being local, it does not need Internet connection once you downloaded a model you need (which normally takes a single-digit number of gigabytes).

If you want actual good features like deep research or chain of thought, eh, not sure it’s a good choice

The models will also not be very powerful

Mine are not public, i use a tinfoil duck.ai.

And you don't need any of that. You don't even need a local LLM.

So if you decide you want it, then that's on you, and you have made the choice to give up your data.

I don't think OpenAI gets anything from this, I think they just failed to realize how stupid the average person is.

and you don't need a computer, and you don't need to eat good food

It's just that you lose so much productivity, comfort and so on

When such a tool is a difference between 30 mins and 5 hours of work, then you simply use it. You either move with the masses to compete, or you don't, but you'll pay the price anyways.

If you think LLMs are as fundamental as having a computer or internet access, then I really just don't know what to say.

You have clearly never been in that situation then. It is obviously not like this for many people, but for students for example, it often means a lot more

Yeah, this thing that's notorious for hallucinating and has only recently become even somewhat reliable is essential.

How did all those students from 2021 even survive??

Jesus, we're absolutely fucked.

They get more human written text, which is one of the most powerful things in their doomed attempt to forestall model collapse

Surviving is different than living in good conditions

As with every tool, it has downsides. Learn to use it or continue to whine

That is... literally my point.

You're comparing very disparate things. And I already pointed out the downside. No one here is whining about anything.

They already have the text

And I already pointed the upside. You don't have to use the default UI though, custom UI exists, APIs exists, and you don't have to enter personal infos in prompts, as well as use your residential IP... this pretty much makes it unlinkable to you

Isn't that a good thing? If more people are using it without it being indexed, search engines would end up even more useless.

To use your analogy, it's like someone said, "Well, if you want a Michelin 5-star steak au jus, then your wallet is gonna take a hit". And you replied, "That's like saying in order to eat dinner you need to raise your own livestock and train for years as a professional chef".

I'm not saying corporate LLMs are bad, or that they have no upside. I'm saying your scale for what's essential and what's a luxury is alarming.

I wish they were always a luxury, but in some situations they’re just too important to me

While I don't fully share the notion and tone of other commenter, I gotta say LLMs have absolutely tanked education and science, as noted by many and as I witnessed firsthand.

I'm a young scientist on my way to PhD, and I get to assist in a microbiology course for undergraduates.

The amount of AI slop coming from student assignments is astounding, and worse of all - they don't see it themselves. When it comes to me checking their actual knowledge, it's devastating.

And it's not just undergrads - many scientific articles also now have signs of AI slop, which messes up with research to a concerning degree.

Personally, I tried using more specialized tools like Perplexity in Research mode to look for sources, but it royally messed up listing the sources - it took actual info from scientific articles, but then referenced entirely different articles that hold no relation to it.

So, in my experience LLMs can be useful to generate a simple text or help you tie known facts together. But as a learning tool...be careful, or rather just don't use them for that. Classical education exists for a good reason, and it is that you learn to get factually correct and relevant information, analyze it and keep it in your head for future reference. It takes more time, but is ultimately much worth it.