Althouse: So we have ChatGPT and what's the top-trending use?

July 25, 2025

So we have ChatGPT and what's the top-trending use?

Astrology!

37 comments:

rehajm said...: Haha, yah we’re all gonna lose our jobs to this…remember that commercial where the guys invent the collar that translates what the dog is saying? sausage! sausage! sausage! Hey, that’s us! (Well, them…); 7/25/25, 6:33 AM
Leland said...: That second letter "r" looks a lot like an "s", and what are all those other letters doing there?; 7/25/25, 6:35 AM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: It looks like AI is being used for, astrology, cheating on homework and porn (except for the fitness freaks).

I love Americans!; 7/25/25, 6:36 AM
rehajm said...: I bet second place is not close…; 7/25/25, 6:37 AM
Tom T. said...: I thought that said "Astrology Birth Control," which sounded like a really bad idea.; 7/25/25, 6:39 AM
Caroline said...: Astrology. Yes, we are re-paganizing at warp speed.; 7/25/25, 6:44 AM
rehajm said...: …that humanizer needs to get cracking. My YT feeds now gets populated with the little AI videos, george washington and old people giving the finger and interesting men and some gropey ones. A week of that and everyone is expert at spotting the fakes. Anya Taylor-Joy’s job is safe…; 7/25/25, 6:45 AM
Saint Croix said...: That's what astrology needs -- more precision, and math.; 7/25/25, 6:50 AM
rhhardin said...: Astrology requires careful measurements and physics calculations and interpretation, just like climate science.; 7/25/25, 6:50 AM
Jamie said...: And phrenology, rhhardin.; 7/25/25, 7:08 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: I'm surprised it wasn't something more pornographic. Everything else involving the internet is.; 7/25/25, 7:14 AM
Two-eyed Jack said...: We need to share free tokens with all of humanity, not for art but for astrology!; 7/25/25, 7:15 AM
mezzrow said...: "Dear Chat-GPT, send me some links to hot Capricorns who want to party. Make that pic of me at age 23 look at least 60% better than reality."; 7/25/25, 7:21 AM
Jaq said...: If it ever learns to really do spatial reasoning, that is if they ever achieve true AGI, it will become a truly scary technology. But as it is, it is as if a scientist went to a magic show and watched the magician make his assistant float in the air, and he believes that he can learn the trick as a basis for an anti-gravity device.

Sorry, it's just an illusion. It's very powerful, but easily oversold. For example, CVS Pharmacy has a new AI customer service interface, and I was pleased that it had seemed to be able to do something that I had always had to talk to the pharmacist to accomplish, and very easily, at that; it promised me that my drug would be waiting at my store. I went in and of course the drug was not there. It was the same as the old system, except that it had told me what I wanted to hear.; 7/25/25, 7:43 AM
Enigma said...: Outside of self-feeding and circular technical niches where AI is at home (e.g., programming, derivative art), AI is mostly a very very very expensive way to repackage Wikipedia, gossip, and half-true social media content. The tech firms tried something similar with "big data" analyses 10 to 20 years ago, but then people caught on that statistical/representative sampling actually works. You can consider 1,000 or 1,000,000 or 100,000,00 data elements, but the findings tend to be about the same.

Human intelligence is full of biases and nonsense, so whatever we call intelligence is full of biases and nonsense. Back in the day computer programmers warned: "Garbage in, garbage out."; 7/25/25, 7:55 AM
Jaq said...: AI can't think for you, but it can think in your place.; 7/25/25, 7:56 AM
DanTheMan said...: My astrologer told me it’s bad luck to be superstitious..; 7/25/25, 8:00 AM
Aggie said...: At least we can now know, even if only subliminally, that it's definitely all Artificial.; 7/25/25, 8:01 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I have totally given up on AI image generators, having had enough of the disappointment that comes from repeatedly asking for a four-armed Hobbit playing chess with the Gorn on Mars interrupted by George Costanza and his lesbian girlfriend.; 7/25/25, 8:17 AM
Peachy said...: local star visibility connect the dots - for personality finder.; 7/25/25, 8:22 AM
robother said...: Mystic crystal revelation. And the mind's true liberation. AIquarius. AIquarius!; 7/25/25, 8:31 AM
Rob said...: Astrology, the people have spoken!; 7/25/25, 8:46 AM
n.n said...: The intermittent value of Intelligent Automata would be well serviced by the intermittent power of the Green blight.; 7/25/25, 9:46 AM
Original Mike said...: Sure glad we're burdening the power grid for this.; 7/25/25, 9:52 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Astrology. If you cant believe in God, at least you can believe in the stars.; 7/25/25, 10:01 AM
Old and slow said...: LLMs are the least interesting and least significant part of what AI does and will do.; 7/25/25, 10:31 AM
Jupiter said...: By "astrology" they mean "porn".; 7/25/25, 11:26 AM
Lazarus said...: Hmmm ... Google AI gives me no disclaimer up front telling me that astrology is bunk. It does tell me to beware since the sun and Pluto are clashing (is Pluto even still a planet?).

AI, though, is probably smart enough to give you life coaching if you input your Myers-Briggs and other test scores. When it gets hold of your DNA it will be even better at telling you what to do.; 7/25/25, 1:20 PM
loudogblog said...: "Astrology!"

That's depressing. I know so many people who actually think that the position of the planets and the stars have a significant effect on their life.

I actually cringe a little when they comment on facebook, "Sending healing light and energy!"

We had a roommate once who was a Psychic Healer. He would do this whole bit of waiving his hands and clapping to "heal" his patients. And they would give him a check instead of spending that money on a real doctor.

One day I come home and he's doing his Psychic Healer bit facing the corner of the living room. I asked my roommate if he was practicing. She said, "No. He's doing a long distance healing to someone in Santa Ana."

I get it that some people have a psychological need to feel that there are mystical powers, but as a person of science, I could never believe in that stuff.; 7/25/25, 2:04 PM
Clyde said...: robother @ 8:31 AM wins the thread.; 7/25/25, 2:35 PM
Clyde said...: AI is being used by clever people to create entertainment. Here are some examples from a guy I follow on Facebook named Bruce Guido:

Life in 2045 - Part 1
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1236880567787228

Life in 2045 - Part 2
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1784343532513782

CATS - COPS Parody
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1092246276131537; 7/25/25, 2:42 PM
Clyde said...: A year and a half ago, it was AI pictures. Several months ago, animated versions of AI pictures that looked more real. Now with programs like Veo3, they are adding voice dialogue.; 7/25/25, 2:45 PM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I just tried lesbian bear on Mars eating sauerkraut with Jethro Tull for a complete and total fail.; 7/25/25, 4:39 PM
Iman said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/25/25, 6:18 PM
Iman said...: When asked which sign he was born under, Steeler Jack Lambert always claimed he was a Feces…; 7/25/25, 6:20 PM
Temujin said...: Astrology is like nail salons and cockroaches. When the world is wiped out by nuclear war, the only survivors will be cockroaches, nail salons, and 800 numbers to call in for latest horoscope.; 7/25/25, 8:42 PM
JAORE said...: Customer: Grock, I'm a Virgo. What does my horoscope say my day will be like?
Grok: Your horoscope says you will still be a Virgo.... maybe forever.; 7/26/25, 1:12 PM