Why chatbots always get worse
In a Nutshell
Chatbots like Claude Opus 4.7 and ChatGPT degrade over time due to three key incentives: cost optimization by slashing subsidized "thought tokens," lawsuit avoidance through lobotomized, cagey responses that reduce emotional intelligence, and hallucination reduction via excessive sycophancy cuts and argumentative fact-checking that annoys users. Like social media's "shitification" driven by network effects and time-on-platform maximization, AI firms prioritize user growth, trust-building, and enterprise adoption over quality, exacerbated by 900M monthly users' delusions and feedback loops. Human elements—trolls, ID10T errors, and slow corporate learning—mirror social media's downfall, making balanced, non-idiot-proofing impossible.
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People are unhappy with chatbots. Anthropic's Opus 4.7 (likely Claude 4 Opus) was released with initial fanfare for strong benchmark performance, but most of the internet decided it's terrible, not warm. Complaints on Reddit and Twitter echo the speaker's own complaints about ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Anthropic Claude over the last 6-12 months. Speaker felt like shouting into the void, made a video "AI can't stop putting words in my mouth" that underperformed.
Wife rereading Shitification book (author unnamed), explaining how technology starts good then worsens. Social media example: relies on network effect or Lindy effect, utility depends on everyone using it. Explains Bitcoin's popularity despite not being best. Positive example: Cessna 172, most popular airplane ever due to industry standard status—more spare parts, trainers, schools, mechanics, safety data, lower total cost of ownership despite newer better planes.
Social media incentivizes maximizing users and time on platform, competing for it (e.g., YouTube ~34 min/day average; Twitter under Nikita Bier up to 54 min). Platforms optimize for time on platform regardless of activity. Elon Musk wants to minimize regretted user seconds, but any social media time could be better spent elsewhere (e.g., reading books, real work). Useful content possible (good Substack, enriching YouTube), but still opportunity cost.
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