It’s not exactly new. There’s a reason customer service is a skill, even in a positive context.

Many people crave affirmation. LLMs compliment their intellect, boosting their ego and affirming that their question falls under critical thinking or research rather than ignorance or stupidity.

They’re the type that turn everything into a conversation (more common for elderly people). They crave human connection.

Along the same lines, some people just dislike technology. LLMs are less robotic.

They may trust information coming from a human more than what pops up online. (A large factor in the spread of disinformation)

The additional context/hand holding helps them digest information

Personally: I learn to live with it because search engines are trash. It’s faster to fact check what an LLM tells me, and it usually involves less unnecessary reading.

Basically, people don’t like researching things. LLMs make it feel more question focused rather than information focused.

Yes, that too. It’d be much more convenient if we could drive in a straight line to our destination, but roads were built for a reason! Air traffic is no different.

There are mountains and multiple no-fly zones along the direct path. They’re avoiding those.

Y’all, this has nothing to do with the curvature of the Earth. There are mountains and multiple no-fly zones that would be crossed if they flew in a straight line.