this post was submitted on 03 May 2026
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my father was a university professor and an expert in his field, writing and publishing.

I'm not happy with my job and I'm deciding if I should keep it or study a bachelor, meaning less money for at least 3 years, working part time, relocating... for an uncertain future.

I explained my fears and the situation to my father thoroughly. This once brilliant person capable of giving me several points of view about several topics pasted my questions to an AI engine and sent me its answers, it's like he didn't even try to answer the questions himself. wtf?

It's sad and scary: a person I once could confide in, ask for guidance is now... disappearing? It's like he disregarded the emotional component completely.

He is now 78 years old. Am I being unrealistic?

And the AI answer? gets several things wrong and doesn't tell me anything new but holy shit, the way the answer is phrased (my personal opinion, what I think is...), no wonder so many seniors believe they're talking to an actual human, which is scary on so many levels, because the engine hallucinated several false facts and presented them so neatly packaged, seniors take them as correct fact.

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[โ€“] CannonFodder@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago

Went through this myself. My father was a physics prof, and at some point he couldn't really follow what I was doing at work. It was sad, but we all get there. Then a few years beck, he was late 80's, my daughter asked him for help with some 1st year calculus and I was about to hop in and help him save face but he taught it like a pro, clear understanding of where she was stuck and how to guide her to figuring it out. And pointing out a couple of algebra errors in some other stuff that just caught his eye in her work. But at the same time, he's hopeless at recognizing scams. He hasn't fallen for anything yet, but forwards emails or texts to me asking if things are legit when they are so obviously not. Just got to be patient and understanding. We all get there eventually if we make it that far.