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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

#91

Post by 082349872349872 »

sandspar wrote: post #88
082349872349872 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Current LLMs also do nothing but reflect your own culture back to you. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude are American products and reflect an establishment American worldview. Specifically an American culture worldview that's a mix between Silicon Valley, the anxiety prone middle class, and the CIA.

That's a good point, but shouldn't it be temporary? I had thought at this point the whole world (including alcoholics, hooligans, and deadheads) was training up their own?

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#92

Post by HPsquared »

woopsn wrote: post #82

So, intending no snark here - seminars in confidence and writing, emotional regulation, leadership, language tutoring, anger management, other interpersonal/soft skills.. I imagine a future where these are available to all on tape and CD. LLMs could really make a difference for the effectiveness of "self-help", but the picture that has formed of trust, transparency and ownership in the online data broker industry is…

A lot of them offer not to use the data for anything else, usually an an extra price. Or there's the local option if you don't need maximum smarts.

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#93

Post by Teever »

VeryFinePrint wrote: post #64

As a reddit mod of a tiny community I've very recently started to suggest users use ChatGPT to re-word their comments and submissions when their phrasing is inflammatory. Any point worth making is worth making well. It is still early stages, so I'm not sure how effective it will be. I've noticed that ChatGPT can do a decent job rewording an angry message to be less toxic while drawing out the salient points. The outp…

It will be interesting to see when spiteful users start creating LLM powered bots that are designed to waste reddit moderator's time in such a way that the moderator's reaction doesn't rise to the level of a ban, but enough that it consumes a disproportionate amount of their time.

It'll be a fabulous display of malicious compliance where they're doing something somewhat similar to your suggestion of using chatgpt to rewrite their messages, but with an entirely different outcome than you intended.

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#94

Post by HPsquared »

SJC_Hacker wrote: post #86
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I get it, OTOH, humans are unfortunately selfish assholes. In any sufficiently large group of people, there are always conflicts - people attempting to assume control, marginalize/exclude/bully other individuals, etc. Which is part of the reason why people seek out these alternatives. The prevalence of this is greatly, greatly exaggerated in my experience. School was absolutely like this, but the further you get fr…

> The less anyone givss a shit. Except when it comes to things like business/jobs. Or romantic partners. Then people will knife you in the back if they can get an advantage. Or squeeze you as much as possible. I leave it to you how much of someone's life those two things occupy.

Really, school is worse than any of those. In most cases.

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#95

Post by helboi4 »

01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #83
helboi4 wrote: post #29

Another episode of "what convoluted way can we use tech to 'solve' a social issue that it clearly exacerbates to try and desperately keep the blind cult-like silicon valley version of techno-optimism alive for as long as possible, while ignoring the obvious disastrous social consequences" I'm pretty sure nobody 15 years ago would have uttered the phrase "opportunities for practising social skills are hard to come by"…

> nobody 15 years ago would have uttered the phrase "opportunities for practising social skills are hard to come by" College was tough for me

I had no friends for the majority of high school. I still often find it hard to make friends. I would not have said I didn't have opportunities to practice social skills. Like, I still spoke to people every day. It might take some longer to learn than others but you just have to like, leave your house and have work/school and go to shops bro. There are opportunities everywhere. College gives you the most opportunities. If people in your class don't like you, there's like 200 social societies that you can join. You could even go and just talk to your professor about work. Your lack of opportunities and your lack of skills are two different issues. There is no lack of oppurtunity in college. The only people who actually lack oppurtunity for attempting to better their social skills are some disabled people.

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#96

Post by helboi4 »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #65
helboi4 wrote: post #29

Another episode of "what convoluted way can we use tech to 'solve' a social issue that it clearly exacerbates to try and desperately keep the blind cult-like silicon valley version of techno-optimism alive for as long as possible, while ignoring the obvious disastrous social consequences" I'm pretty sure nobody 15 years ago would have uttered the phrase "opportunities for practising social skills are hard to come by"…

A comparison to video games shows how hard it is to truly practice social skills. You can't play the same situation over and over, which is why it's easier to get better at small talk than confrontation. People don't want to reveal how they manipulate you, so schools can't teach about head tilting and brinksmanship. You have few trustworthy external evaluators, so you can come away from a conversation where you talke…

I think most people who cannot learn most of these skills between the ages of 12-21 (when it's perfectly socially acceptable to fuck up to varying degrees, since literally everyone is learning), are probably neurodivergent. In which case they need to get a diagnosis, that will hopefully open them up to coaching by a human being. Perhaps something like this tech could be supplementary for some extreme cases there. Anyone who is not neurodivergent is just being overly self conscious if they think its not normal to blunder a lot even up to the age of 25. Such timid people will be actively crippled by staying indoors talking to a computer instead of participating in normal human developmental behaviour (otherwise known as interacting with other humans and fucking up a lot).

I say this as someone who literally had no friends in high school and wasn't particularly fond of leaving my house because of it. I get accused of being some extreme extrovert so often here just for saying common sense things about how humans are social creatures and you really do have to go through these things.

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#97

Post by helboi4 »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #41
SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> You seem to have this idealized notion of what community was like outside of technology. By "idealized notion" you mean "the vast, vast majority of human history"? "Community" is not typically defined as "the people you talk bullshit with for fun" and that's all. Your community is the people you live with and among. It's the people you're most likely to experience Big Things with, things like natural disasters, wei…

Thanks for saying this. There is such a badge of honour about being some misanthropic hermetic introvert that bandies about online. Some people are more extroverted than others, sure. But interacting with people is vital to human's health both mentally and physically. It's in our DNA. It's not something you can opt out of. And once you expose yourself and get better at it, your life gets better. It's as simple as that. More interaction, more community is objectively better.

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#98

Post by helboi4 »

iamcurious wrote: post #53
the_snooze wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good test for what a community is is: "Who will vouch for you?" You can have a machine pretend to talk the talk and parrot it back to you for "training," but you're still an unknown outsider at the end of the day. I don't think HN is a community in that sense. There's no "knowing" one another. There's no real accountability or shame of getting kicked out. We're all just text-generators.

I have never felt closer yet farther away from y'all. Thank you, I need to cry, and revaluate my social habits.

You can do it buddy. Get out in the world!

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#99

Post by vouaobrasil »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #80
vouaobrasil wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 z…

> 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. Yeah, these communities can be hostile to people who don’t fit in, especially visible minorities.

> Yeah, these communities can be hostile to people who don’t fit in, especially visible minorities.

Okay, so your solution to ending discrimination is technological. Right. How simplistic. How about we solve our social problems without resorting to technology. And many are not like that as well. So we should destroy those too? What a black and white approach!

Re: Social Skill Training with Large Language Models

#100

Post by vouaobrasil »

Zetobal wrote: post #55
vouaobrasil wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

You can just not use it.

No, not if you want to participate in certain aspects of society. For example: getting a job, which is pretty crucial, IMO.
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