I feel like the people who created and sold these programs should be considered no different than people who create a biological or nuclear weapon of mass destruction. It's working as intended and the people who created, enabled, and used it should be held accountable.

But destruction is not the fault of the technology, it's the fault of the people who used it to create a weapon of mass destruction while fighting global AI treaties and regulations in favor of greed and power.

Nuclear material has the potential to create something that can destroy the world, but it also has the potential to create something that could save humanity depending on how it's used by the people who possess the material.

Biolabs have used pathogens with pandemic potential to make weapons that destroy, but they also created the first vaccines against those pathogens, and eventually developed methods to create non-live vaccines.

Proper use of AI would require transparency and regulations that place the good of all humanity before the good of the individual nation or corporation. It would be difficult to achieve, but not impossible. Destructive use seems less inherent to the technology itself than to human traits like greed and selfishness being permitted by society.

The LLMs that are designed to manipulate people to keep using a product are somewhere between cigarettes/gambling and a gun. I think they're definitely harmful and require regulations and restrictions. At the bare minimum I think there should be some kind of mandatory warning label, or link to reach out for help always included at the bottom of the screen just to remind people of the reality of what they're using when they use it.

I honestly kind of hate them, but I also don't think we need to try and banish them from society even if they don't really have the same potential for improving humanity. I think at best they serve as time savers the same way using a calculator to do simple math saves us time, but also makes us a little dumber/less skilled in the long run.