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Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

arxiv.org

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Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#31

Post by vouaobrasil »

Zetobal wrote: post #25
vouaobrasil wrote: post #22

> However, practice environments for social skills are typically out of reach for most people. This is exactly what I predicted...AI and technology isolates us from each other by destroying communities, and is slowly replacing real human interaction with computer interaction. The end result is that in the future, people will have fewer and fewer opportunities to interact with others and will have to be drip-fed satia…

Look beyond your bubble. The child participating in 'School over the Air' in Australia likely appreciates having such a resource to develop their social skills. Sometimes, you need a private space, especially if the community around you isn't on the same wavelength as you are or it's your family and some farm hands.

So your rebuttal is that isolated examples of this technology being beneficial outweight the mass societal cost of people becoming more isolated in general? And I simply do not see how the need for "private space" and "practising social skills" go hand in hand.

Yes, everyone needs their alone time. And everyone needs social contact (except maybe some exceptions, maybe...). Both can be accomplished WITHOUT technology, and much more easily.

Don't you think if someone needs private space and isn't getting, that's something that should be dealt with away from technology?

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#32

Post by paganel »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #26
vouaobrasil wrote: post #22

> However, practice environments for social skills are typically out of reach for most people. This is exactly what I predicted...AI and technology isolates us from each other by destroying communities, and is slowly replacing real human interaction with computer interaction. The end result is that in the future, people will have fewer and fewer opportunities to interact with others and will have to be drip-fed satia…

It may take an active, conscious, participatory approach to compensate for. Though, can you help me understand the connection between the grocery store checkout process and community a bit more?

Not the OP, but I do consider the cashier people from the groceries store nearby as part of the community.

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#33

Post by 082349872349872 »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #21

> However, practice environments for social skills are typically out of reach for most people. I learned my social skills in school, interacting with my peers in my neighborhood, and from my family. I understand this is not available to everyone, but anyone with access the LLMs there is a high likelihood they also (should?) have access to schooling, some neighbors, and family. To what culture this LLM was trained to?

schooling, some neighbours, and family will likely do nothing beyond reflect your own culture back at you.

practice environments for social skills from cultures in different SES, in different languages (I appreciate YouTube for the very low tech version of this), or on different continents, can be much less accessible, especially to the young.

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#34

Post by vouaobrasil »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #26
vouaobrasil wrote: post #22

> However, practice environments for social skills are typically out of reach for most people. This is exactly what I predicted...AI and technology isolates us from each other by destroying communities, and is slowly replacing real human interaction with computer interaction. The end result is that in the future, people will have fewer and fewer opportunities to interact with others and will have to be drip-fed satia…

It may take an active, conscious, participatory approach to compensate for. Though, can you help me understand the connection between the grocery store checkout process and community a bit more?

> Though, can you help me understand the connection between the grocery store checkout process and community a bit more?

It can be viewed on multiple levels.

First, there are many papers on the psychological literature about this, but [1] is an example, which is that even a little social contact with a few real people can make a person feel better. Check out Google scholar or the article I linked below to learn more. But that is also intuitive. But if a person is feeling a bit down and they have the "easy way out" (self checkout, other technologies that diminish casual human interaction), they will not gain the benefit of human contact.

Second, on a greater scale, if all these little things add up, people will seek out interactions less often. For example, a few years ago I ran into some strangers that became friends because I needed their help to find a rare bird (I'm a birder). If I had an advanced AI app that listened for bird calls and helped me find birds better than any human, I might never have made friends with them.

The point is, when technology is lacking to do something, we are more likely to seek out people to help us. Yes, technology does make some parts of life easier, but there must be a BALANCE, and not this recent trend of automating EVERYTHING, which takes the self-reliance thing to its logical extreme.

1. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-020-00298-6

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#35

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #22

> However, practice environments for social skills are typically out of reach for most people. This is exactly what I predicted...AI and technology isolates us from each other by destroying communities, and is slowly replacing real human interaction with computer interaction. The end result is that in the future, people will have fewer and fewer opportunities to interact with others and will have to be drip-fed satia…

I’m not sure I agree with this take that technology is taking away community in general. I think communities are simply changing. I mean HN is a community and it’s all technology. IRC is a ton of fond memories for me in a time where my irl community was failing me as an awkward nerd, and gave me friends that I can irl meet and chat with now.

You seem to have this idealized notion of what community was like outside of technology. But that community always had outsiders and ignored people, that community had communal lynchings and hangings, pogroms, witch trials etc. and strict ways of life where, if you didn’t conform, you were far more isolated than now where you could meet fellow weirdos!

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#36

Post by vouaobrasil »

paganel wrote: post #32
kelseyfrog wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may take an active, conscious, participatory approach to compensate for. Though, can you help me understand the connection between the grocery store checkout process and community a bit more?

Not the OP, but I do consider the cashier people from the groceries store nearby as part of the community.

Exactly, and usually after shopping at the same place for a while, I get to know the cashier a little bit. I've actually had some good conversations with some of them, and tellers at the post office as well. (One could say that it might be better for them if they didn't have a job and they got UBI, but to be honest, as young adult, I appreciated my first menial job at least in that it gave me a sense of responsibility and independence. And a lot of these people are young people.)

What a lot of technologists seem to think is that AI will make everything wonderful by allowing us unlimited free time to do hobbies, but the desire to spend all of one's free time on hobbies is a very peculiar and minority desire of the very intelligent. (And it may be more of a fantasy than soemthing that would actually make them happy in reality.)

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#37

Post by troyvit »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #26
vouaobrasil wrote: post #22

> However, practice environments for social skills are typically out of reach for most people. This is exactly what I predicted...AI and technology isolates us from each other by destroying communities, and is slowly replacing real human interaction with computer interaction. The end result is that in the future, people will have fewer and fewer opportunities to interact with others and will have to be drip-fed satia…

It may take an active, conscious, participatory approach to compensate for. Though, can you help me understand the connection between the grocery store checkout process and community a bit more?

I have a story that happened just last night. I almost always go through the self check-out because I can pack my groceries just how I like. So I scan my groceries while a round glass eye watches my every move and a machine repeatedly tells me to "place the item in the bag." )There are no bags, we're a bagless state, but the machine doesn't know that.) Sometimes I'll palm a Luna Bar or two just because I can.

Last night I was running really late and there was a long line at the self check-out so I went to the one open human-powered check-out lanes. They were about 3x as fast as I would've been and I had a pleasant conversation with the checker and the bagger. Yeah my bananas got a little beat up but it was a much better experience. Now I feel like I can say hi to those people.

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#38

Post by boringg »

Zetobal wrote: post #25
vouaobrasil wrote: post #22

> However, practice environments for social skills are typically out of reach for most people. This is exactly what I predicted...AI and technology isolates us from each other by destroying communities, and is slowly replacing real human interaction with computer interaction. The end result is that in the future, people will have fewer and fewer opportunities to interact with others and will have to be drip-fed satia…

Look beyond your bubble. The child participating in 'School over the Air' in Australia likely appreciates having such a resource to develop their social skills. Sometimes, you need a private space, especially if the community around you isn't on the same wavelength as you are or it's your family and some farm hands.

OP argument is that it is bad for societal as a whole. Coming back with an example for a very small sub group doens't refute OPs position. Your position that it can help with edge cases is valid however if OPs position was taken then there would be a large swath of damage for a small gain in a small population. That doesn't have much logic to it.

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#39

Post by 082349872349872 »

delichon wrote: post #6

You know the trope where the speaker is rude and crude but their translator renders their comments in polite diplomatic terms? Like "fuck you and the horse you rode in on" translated as "with respect, I emphatically disagree"? Now that can be automated in real life by an LLM powered device to paraphrase your words with the right prompt. Mostly I say what I want the person I'm talking to to hear, but this would be use…

The dual channel version of this would be where both parties understand each other's language, but use translators anyway for diplomatic nicety, so they can get to brass tacks* with each other but the historians record the encounter in a highly refined register.

* Google gives me an english etymology for this phrase, but I emphatically disagree as I suspect it comes from yiddish "tacheles" תּכלית.

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#40

Post by vouaobrasil »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #35
vouaobrasil wrote: post #22

> However, practice environments for social skills are typically out of reach for most people. This is exactly what I predicted...AI and technology isolates us from each other by destroying communities, and is slowly replacing real human interaction with computer interaction. The end result is that in the future, people will have fewer and fewer opportunities to interact with others and will have to be drip-fed satia…

I’m not sure I agree with this take that technology is taking away community in general. I think communities are simply changing. I mean HN is a community and it’s all technology. IRC is a ton of fond memories for me in a time where my irl community was failing me as an awkward nerd, and gave me friends that I can irl meet and chat with now. You seem to have this idealized notion of what community was like outside of…

> I mean HN is a community and it’s all technology. IRC is a ton of fond memories for me in a time where my irl community was failing me as an awkward nerd, and gave me friends that I can irl meet and chat with now.

Well, personally, I would love to know what percentage of people here actually cared about the other people here in terms of actually caring, like having a real friend. I'm assuming it's rather close to zero. Don't get me wrong, I like debating on here but it's nothing like an in-person community.

You can disagree all you like, but I think one thing that is near-universal is that there is something special about in-person communities that cannot be replicated online. Sorry to say, although I like talking to people on here, I have no idea who any of you are, what your faces look like, and for all intents and purposes, you could even be AI.

The truth is, and I think most average people would agree, there's nothing like a genuine, real community with real people having face-to-face interaction.

And an idealized notion?! Come on, seriously! I'm just talking about some basic stuff like interacting with neighbours, talking to employees at the grocery, helping other community members out with basic stuff, etc. In fact, it would be nice if community bonds were even stronger at times...

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