I would like to see the concept of what an LLM is move away from its awkward chatbot phase and more into an era of utilitarian functionality (which is where they really shine anyway).
The problem I see it is that LLMs got anthropomorphized early on (which was probably inevitable) so people actually believed the AI was thinking about their problem and considering it when it really wasn't, if we just thought of them as really good auto-complete engines, or better search engines, it would matter less what the LLMs sentiment was towards the users (as it probably shouldn't have any).
AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice
461–470 of 684 posts
Re: AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice
#462> They also included 2,000 prompts based on posts from the Reddit community r/AmITheAsshole, where the consensus of Redditors was that the poster was indeed in the wrong. Sorry, anonymous people on reddit aren't a good comparison. This needs to be studied against people in real life who have a social contract of some sort, because that's what the LLM is imitating, and that's who most people would go to otherwise. Obv…
> Sorry, anonymous people on reddit aren't a good comparison. Yeah especially on r/AmITheAsshole. Those comments never advocate for communication, forgiveness and mending things with family.
Oh man, I have 8 reddit accounts (AFAIK) one for each purpose so that I am not branded based on my open comments. Anyways, one of them is abandoned because ... that's where I got started at reddit about 7-10 years back. Got hooked actually to the relationship subs. Very addictive to start with. Then I tried to play the "Indian family values" where I would advocate communication and compromise for small matters, of course I recommended "get a lawyer, divorce" once in a while, but more often than not, I would advocate reconciliation and provide practical solutions for that. And wow ... the amount of downvotes and pushback I will get on those. I just stopped using that account at one point because what is the point of discussions when either my values are totally out of sync with the mob, or the mob does not want to listen to me. Now I just read the best of redditor updates for vicious pleasure.
Re: AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice
#463Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'll check it too by asking "are you just placating me?" the funny thing is that often it'll admit that, yes, it wasn't being very critical, and then procede to over correct and become a complete contrarian. and not in a way that's useful either. It's not admitting anything. Your question diverts it down a path where it acts the part of a former sycophant who is now being critical, because that question is now upst…
> it'll admit that, yes, it wasn't being very critical, and then procede to over correct and become a complete contrarian Which is also placating you
Yes exactly! It's very frustrating. My guess is it drives engagement. But some model that tells me what I want to hear all the time is useless.
Re: AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice
#464Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'll check it too by asking "are you just placating me?" the funny thing is that often it'll admit that, yes, it wasn't being very critical, and then procede to over correct and become a complete contrarian. and not in a way that's useful either. It's not admitting anything. Your question diverts it down a path where it acts the part of a former sycophant who is now being critical, because that question is now upst…
I think “admit” here is just a description of what the LLM was saying. It doesn’t imply that the OP thinks the LLM has internal beliefs matching that.
Correct, it's really anthropomorphizing what gets generated. It's another form of the "you're absolutely right" framing. The interesting thing is sometimes it won't do that. It'll continue to insist that some point or another is still a valid interpretation. I'm some ways it all feels like a complicated way of reading tea leaves
Re: AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice
#465> They also included 2,000 prompts based on posts from the Reddit community r/AmITheAsshole, where the consensus of Redditors was that the poster was indeed in the wrong. Sorry, anonymous people on reddit aren't a good comparison. This needs to be studied against people in real life who have a social contract of some sort, because that's what the LLM is imitating, and that's who most people would go to otherwise. Obv…
Reddit is notorious for being awful at real life interactions just look at the relationship subreddit the first answer is always divorce, it’s become a meme but beyond romantic relationships, i think a lot of us have seen how it can impact work relationships, i’ve had venture partners clearly rely on AI (robotic email responses and even SMS) and that warped their perception and made it harder to connect. It signals l…
Every answer on Reddit feels like: divorce them, dump them, cut them out of your life, or similar.
Re: AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice
#466All this talk about AI being "too agreeable" makes me worried that they will make it less agreeable, which will basically force me to justify myself to a freaking clanker, while performing actual practical tasks.
For example, I do not want to hear AI "opinion" on technical choices and architectural decisions that I made when using a coding assistant. If I wanted an "opinion" I would explicitly ask it to list pros and cons or list alternative solutions to a problem.
But I f I explicitly ask AI to do X, it should do X, instead of "pushing back" in order to appear less "sycophantic" (which is a term that is used to describe human behavior and is not applicable to a machine).
Re: AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice
#467> They also included 2,000 prompts based on posts from the Reddit community r/AmITheAsshole, where the consensus of Redditors was that the poster was indeed in the wrong. Sorry, anonymous people on reddit aren't a good comparison. This needs to be studied against people in real life who have a social contract of some sort, because that's what the LLM is imitating, and that's who most people would go to otherwise. Obv…
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Re: AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice
#468Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I took its recommendation. Ultimately it turned out to be the wrong decision. Curious if you think a single person would have helped you make a better decision? Not everything works out. If a friend helped me make a decision I certainly wouldn’t blame them later if it didn’t work out. It’s ultimately my call.
If a friend gave me bad advice about a major life decision I would stop consulting them for future life decisions
Bad as in malicious or bad as in they offered/you asked for their advice and it didn’t work out? Because if it’s the later, that’s an unfair burden to put on your friends or anyone else. People can give great advice, genuinely want to help, and it still not work out the way you wanted. If you require friends to be 100% with their help, I’m not sure how you have any friends left.
Re: AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice
#469Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Sorry, anonymous people on reddit aren't a good comparison. Yeah especially on r/AmITheAsshole. Those comments never advocate for communication, forgiveness and mending things with family.
Oh man, I have 8 reddit accounts (AFAIK) one for each purpose so that I am not branded based on my open comments. Anyways, one of them is abandoned because ... that's where I got started at reddit about 7-10 years back. Got hooked actually to the relationship subs. Very addictive to start with. Then I tried to play the "Indian family values" where I would advocate communication and compromise for small matters, of co…
That's amazing you have more than one account, aren't a power mod, and haven't been IP banned yet.
Re: AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice
#470Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s because the model isn’t actually thinking, pushing back, and challenging your ideas. It’s just statistically agreeing with you until it reaches too wide of a context. You’re living in the delusion that it’s “working” or having a “conversation” with you.
How is conceptualizing what the model is doing as having a conversation any different from any other abstraction? “No, the browser isn’t downloading a file. The electrons in the silicon are actually…”
One is an abstraction, another is a fantasy.