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I do not want AI to "polish" me

thebloggess.com

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Re: I do not want AI to "polish" me

#171

There is no way in hell anyone who knows me would get that email and not think I’d been abducted This person cares about not putting up a fake identity. That's pretty cool, but social media has exposed that a large number of people are perfectly fine presenting an illusion. People will have no shame passing off well written things as an output of their talent and hard work. Digital makeup has no bounds.

With the normalization of default workflow to chuck all comms through an LLM filter settling in these days, I don't think it's even people trying to pass off illusions as their own persona. All it takes is a copy-paste and hitting the Make-Me-Some-Text button. I'm sure the responses will be frustratingly amusing if you were to press them and call them out on it (including trying to pass off the illusion).

Many people didn't think about what they are trying to convey (or self-analysed how they present themselves) when drafting correspondence in the past; now, many people think just as not-hard and often continue, like before, to neglect to meaningfully proofread whatever they had the LLMs generate for them before hitting Send.

Of course, I don't like it. But in some ways, it's just not a whole lot different from what it was before in that you can often still tell apart the people who care to be articulate from those who don't. Though, I feel bad for people disproportionately waylaid by the new paradigm like the bug/security responders on the curl project.

Re: I do not want AI to "polish" me

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So then it's ok to not only continue ignoring it as the evidence mounts, but to actually accelerate it? No. No, it's not. It doesn't matter how many fools do something, they're still fools. The root word of ignorance is "to ignore".

You said "Note that this all started with all that digital coin-mining" But it didn't. That's what I'm saying.

They weren't using modern GPUs and muiltiprocessor machines to cook the Earth, which has been happening on a large scale since the turn of this century.

That's what I was and still am saying.

Re: I do not want AI to "polish" me

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing is, we've been here before in a much more limited way; people _hated_ it when Microsoft's demonic paperclip did this in Office. "It looks like you're writing a letter". _Hated_ it. It is unclear what the industry thinks has changed, that people will now welcome "It looks like you're [whatever]".

It's a design that's in companies' best interests. You can have a computer that's a "friend." One that you trust but ultimately has a mind of its own. This contrasts with a computer that's merely a tool, that serves you exclusvely at your pleasure and has zero agency of its own. Which approach gives companies more control over users? Which one allows companies to sell that access to the highest bidder?

Based on the experience of 20 years ago, though, users are _extremely_ turned off by it. There's little reason to think this has changed (if anything it is likely more pronounced because Clippy came in kinda without baggage, whereas LLMs have a lot of baggage and most of it ain't great).

> It's a design that's in companies' best interests.

I really don't think it is. Clippy was reputationaly damaging to Microsoft and they had to get rid of it. There's little reason to think this will be different.

Re: I do not want AI to "polish" me

#175

Obviously the AI version is bland and terrible, but arguably more importantly it has also completely changed the meaning of the message. The AI version: - apologizes - implies the recipient was "promised" this email as a "response" to something - blames a hectic schedule - invites questions None of this was in or was even implied in the original. This is not a "polished" version, it's just a straight-up different ema…

It's just shitty prompt design

Well... that's a very 2025 sentence...

Re: I do not want AI to "polish" me

#176
Soon everyone will be texting, emailing etc with an AI secretary doing it all.

"AI take a letter and polish it up for me..."

Maybe even video conferences will use 'Polish' to portray a recreated lifelike sophisticated avatar with real time grammar correction. When folks finally do meet in real life, they will discover slobs, socially awkward or tactless idiots instead of the suave intellect portrayed by the AI. LOL

Re: I do not want AI to "polish" me

#177
I think a lot of people miss the point.

If you're already an effective writer, obviously AI will usually only make things worse.

But for people where English is not their first language (or whatever language you're writing in), polish is a godsend. It fixes your grammatical errors, vocabulary errors, spelling errors, punctuation errors, and all the rest.

Obviously it can go overboard in changing your meaning (as any flesh-and-blood editor also might), and presumably over time these tools will get more refined.

But for most people who write intelligent comments here on HN, you are not the target audience for this feature. Well, until you have to dust off your high-school French or Spanish or whatever for an e-mail exchange.

Re: I do not want AI to "polish" me

#178

Obviously the AI version is bland and terrible, but arguably more importantly it has also completely changed the meaning of the message. The AI version: - apologizes - implies the recipient was "promised" this email as a "response" to something - blames a hectic schedule - invites questions None of this was in or was even implied in the original. This is not a "polished" version, it's just a straight-up different ema…

this is like when my manager once yelled at me for not writing in corp speak enough

“OK Fine. But could you at least yell at me in corp speak?”

It's no surprise LLMs are using corp speak and vapid marketing prose as a template. There is so much of it out there.

This is from that Autodesk post last week where they admitted their mistake and… Nope it's corp speak:

“We are excited to share some important updates regarding Archiving and our Idea Boards and Forums that aim to enhance your experience and ensure valuable content remains accessible. Please read the details below to understand how these changes might impact you.”

Barf. But to an LLM this looks like a human communicating in a meaningful way.

Re: I do not want AI to "polish" me

#179

> It’s like my whole computer is a toddler screaming “LET ME DO IT!” every time I try to create something. Every autocorrect or auto suggestion ever has felt like this to me, but the volume has been turned up to 11. The otherwise drab Adobe Reader is covered with colorful sparkly buttons and popups suggesting I need not even read the document because it can give me “insights.” First, no you may not ready my proprieta…

Thing is, we've been here before in a much more limited way; people _hated_ it when Microsoft's demonic paperclip did this in Office. "It looks like you're writing a letter". _Hated_ it. It is unclear what the industry thinks has changed, that people will now welcome "It looks like you're [whatever]".

Thing is, Gmail's been doing this ~forever with quick replies to emails, now it's just doing longer replies instead of "that's great, thanks" level of replies.

Re: I do not want AI to "polish" me

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> men who are dangerous/abusive/predators stay in the dating pool longer Not only this but they can use these apps to find their victims faster and easier than ever before. > This is explicitly unfair to normal men I think it's also unfair to women that they have to pick up the extra work that was done by the "community" before. And a loss for social cohesion too. I am wondering though how someone who just ended a re…

> I think it's also unfair to women that they have to pick up the extra work that was done by the "community" before. And a loss for social cohesion too. I would argue the community explicitly did not do the work of ousting predators. We are only in this generation or so no longer allowed to rape women if we're married to them. It is still legal for adults to marry children, not in an 18-to-17 way but a 38-to-15 way.…

I'd like to clarify when I said "community" I wasn't talking exclusively about friend groups (or your mother's friend groups) helping with recommendations and whatnot. I mean the community as a whole - men and women, the bailiffs and the blacksmiths: When you know everyone in your town and most of the people in your neighbouring towns it becomes much easier to know who is a bad person that'll abuse you (or to find out that information).
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