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It's rude to show AI output to people

distantprovince.by

161–170 of 257 posts

Re: It's rude to show AI output to people

#161
post #4

I really wish some of my coworkers would stop using LLMs to write me emails or even Teams messages. It does feel extremely rude, to the point I don't even want to read them anymore.

I love it because it allows me to filter out people not worth my time and attention beyond minimal politeness and professionalism.

Re: It's rude to show AI output to people

#162
post #4

I really wish some of my coworkers would stop using LLMs to write me emails or even Teams messages. It does feel extremely rude, to the point I don't even want to read them anymore.

Why? AI is a tool. Are their messages incorrect or something? If not who cares, they’re being efficient and thus more productive. Please be honest. If it’s slop or they have incorrect information in the message, then my bad, stop reading here. Otherwise… I really hope people like this with holier than thou attitude get filtered out. Fast. People who don’t adapt to use new tools are some of the worst people to work ar…

> If it’s slop or they have incorrect information in the message, then my bad, stop reading here.

"my bad" and what next? The reader just wasted time and focus on reading, it doesn't sound like a fair exchange.

Re: It's rude to show AI output to people

#163
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing that you've never actually lived in that world... When I got squggily written cursive letters from my grandma I could be pretty sure those were her words though up by herself, for the effort to accurately reproduce the consistent mess she made would have been great. But the moment we moved to the typewriter and then other digital means uniformly printed out on paper or screens you've really just assumed…

If you come to the LLM with your message, and then use the LLM to iterate drafts and tighten your prose, then no, the exercise was exactly the opposite of a disrespect to the reader. Sending half-baked, run-on, unvetted writing, when you easily could have chosen otherwise, is in fact the disrespectful choice.

Why would I want everyone who talks to me to sound like a clone of the same vapid robot?

I would avoid that world at any cost of I was allowed a choice, but the point is that it's used as a weapon against you. Consent appears to be unnecessary.

Re: It's rude to show AI output to people

#164
post #97
post #79

> "I vibe-coded this pull request in just 15 minutes. Please review" > > Well, why don't you review it first? My current day to day problem is that, the PRs don't come with that disclaimer; The authors won't even admit if asked directly. Yet I know my comments on the PR will be fed to the cursor so it makes more crappy edits, and I'll be expecting an entirely different PR in 10 minutes to review from scratch without…

Rather than close or ignore PRs, you should start a dialogue with them. Teach them that the AI is not a person, and if they contribute buggy or low quality code, it’s their responsibility, not the AIs, and ultimately their job on the line. Another perspective I’ve found to resonate with people is to remind them — if you’re not reviewing the code or passing it through any type of human reasoning to determine its fit t…

> Rather than close or ignore PRs, you should start a dialogue with them. Teach them that the AI is not a person, and if they contribute buggy or low quality code, it’s their responsibility, not the AIs, and ultimately their job on the line.

I’m willing to mentor folks, and help them grow. But what you’re describing sounds so exhausting, and it’s so much worse than what “mentorship” meant just a few short years ago. I have to now teach people basic respect and empathy at work? Are we serious?

For what it’s worth: sometimes ignoring this kind of stuff is teaching. Harshly, sure - but sometimes that’s what’s needed.

Re: It's rude to show AI output to people

#166
post #8

A lot of the reason why I even ask other people is not to get a simple technical answer but to connect, understand another person's unexepected thoughts, and maybe forge a collaboration –– in addition to getting an answer of course. Real people come up with so many side paths and thoughts, whereas AI feels lifeless and drab. To me, someone pasting in an AI answer says: I don't care about any of that. Yeah, not a pers…

It’s the conversational equivalent of “Let me google that for you”.

It is, which I'd argue has a time and a place. Maybe it's more specific to how I cut my teeth in the industry but as programmer whenever I had to ask a question of e.g the ops team, I'd make sure it was clear I'd made an effort to figure out my problem. Here's how I understand the issue, here's what I tried yadda yadda.

Now I'm the 40-year-old ops guy fielding those questions. I'll write up an LLM question emphasizing what they should be focused on, I'll verify the response is in sync with my thoughts, and shoot it to them.

It seems less passive aggressive than LMGTFY and sometimes I learn something from the response.

Re: It's rude to show AI output to people

#167

It gets interesting once you start a discussion about a topic with someone who had ChatGPT doing all the work. They often do not have the same in-depth understanding of what is written there vs. someone who wrote it themselves. Which may not come as a surprise, but yet - here we are. It‘s these kind of discussions I find exhausting, because they show no honesty and no interest by the person I'm interacting with. I us…

AI doesn't leave behind the people who don't use it, it leaves behind the people who do. Roko's Reverse Basilisk?

I never heard of Roko's Basilisk before, and now I entered a disturbing rabbit hole. Peoples' minds are... something.

I mean, it's basically cheating. I get a task, and instead of working my way through the task, which might be tedious, you take the shorter route and receive instant gratification. I can understand how that is causing some kind of rush of endorphines, much like eating a bar of chocolate will. So, yeah - I would agree, altough I do not have any studies that support the hypothesis.

Re: It's rude to show AI output to people

#168
post #126
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don’t think they’re the same thing. Email or letter, the words are yours while an LLM output isn’t.

Initially, it had the same effect on people until they got used to it. In the near future, whether the text is yours or not won't matter. What will matter is the message or idea you're communicating. Just like today, it doesn't matter if the code is yours, only the product you're shipping and problem it's solving.

Code is either fit for a given purpose or not. Communicating with a LLM instead of directly with the desired recipient may be considered fit for purpose for the receiving party, but it’s not for the LLM user to say what the goals of the writer is, nor is it for the LLM user to say what the goals of the writer ought to be. LLMs for communication are inherently unfit for purpose for anything beyond basic yes/no and basic autocomplete. Otherwise I’m not even interacting with a human in the loop except before they hit send, which doesn’t inspire confidence.

Re: It's rude to show AI output to people

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? AI is a tool. Are their messages incorrect or something? If not who cares, they’re being efficient and thus more productive. Please be honest. If it’s slop or they have incorrect information in the message, then my bad, stop reading here. Otherwise… I really hope people like this with holier than thou attitude get filtered out. Fast. People who don’t adapt to use new tools are some of the worst people to work ar…

> If it’s slop or they have incorrect information in the message, then my bad, stop reading here. "my bad" and what next? The reader just wasted time and focus on reading, it doesn't sound like a fair exchange.

That’s on them, I said what I wanted to.

Most of the time people just like getting triggered that someone sent them a —— in their message and blame AI instead of adopting it into their workflows and moving faster.

Re: It's rude to show AI output to people

#170
post #114
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't our parents go through the same thing when email came out? My dad used to say: "Stop sending me emails. It's not the same." I'd tell him, "It's better. "No, it's not. People used to sit down and take the time to write a letter, in their own handwriting. Every letter had its own personality, even its own smell. And you had to walk to the post office to send it. Now sending a letter means nothing." Change is ine…

I really don’t think they’re the same thing. Email or letter, the words are yours while an LLM output isn’t.

That is indeed the crux of it. If you write me an inane email, it’s still you, and it tells me something about you. If you send me the output of some AI, have I learned anything? Has anything been communicated? I simply can’t know. It reminds me a bit of the classic philosophical thought experiment "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Hence the waste of time the author alludes to. The only comparison to email that makes any sense in this case are the senseless chain mails people used to forward endlessly. They have that same quality.
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