This is something I think the ‘you have to use LLMs or you’re falling behind’ crowd are missing. Of course these companies want you to become dependent on their product, and unable to complete basic tasks without it, because then when they slap you with monthly fees and ads and tokens you won’t have a choice but to pay.

Use them if they’re useful, but don’t out source your brain. You’ll need it when the enshittification begins.

I disagree, I think the removal of ads is often painted as a benefit that had inherent value. Look at YouTube premium or Prime video. Both haven’t actually improved their offering, just made it worse by introducing ads and insisting users that don’t want to see ads have to pay for the privilege of not being advertised to.

This means the total price adds up to higher than 100% of the product value, because it’s a ‘premium’ version that comes without advertisement inconvenience.

Paying for the product and paying to not be inconvenienced by ads have become separate things. The first is standard business, the second is extortion.