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AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)

rickmanelius.com

171–180 of 729 posts

Re: AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)

#171
post #96

It's an ego issue for most people. For one, part of it comes from genuine intimidation or fear, the notion that a machine can be smarter than you, or at least produce answers that are more knowledgeable than you could. But I think the more striking issue is what LLMs do to the perceived value of expertise. Especially in engineering there's this weird pecking order hierarchy, where someone should be listened to just "…

Nah its just bad writing.

Plus I’ve been seeing where AI productivity is highest and it’s been when leveraged by an expert.

Re: AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)

#172
post #36

The part that astonishes me is that in the year of our common era two thousand twenty-six that it's not universally offensive and reviling to post an AI-generated response to another person. If I'm reading something on the internet, I'm either reading it to learn, or I'm reading it to be persuaded. If I wanted the LLM to teach me (thank you, no), I would ask an LLM. I'm reading your website/newsletter/email because I…

People are posting on this very website and commenting on Reddit using AI. I can't get myself into the headspace that would enable this behaviour. What exactly is the point of not engaging in conversation yourself and getting a bot to post it for you on an free platform. Crazy.

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Re: AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)

#173
post #36

The part that astonishes me is that in the year of our common era two thousand twenty-six that it's not universally offensive and reviling to post an AI-generated response to another person. If I'm reading something on the internet, I'm either reading it to learn, or I'm reading it to be persuaded. If I wanted the LLM to teach me (thank you, no), I would ask an LLM. I'm reading your website/newsletter/email because I…

> If you can't be bothered to put your time into writing it and teaching me what you think, why should I be bothered to read it?

You are likely not the target audience anymore and they don't care if you're going to read it.

Re: AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)

#174

I really like the point I read somewhere the other day; instead of sending me the AI output, just send me the prompt you used to generate it. That is the only part that contains only the information you are trying to convey. The rest is just guesses flowery language added, and it confuses the actual message being sent.

How is this? https://claude.ai/share/99bfee0f-bab9-4593-aabb-377e71f1151d

Yes, the original prompt is 10000% better than the AI output, because it shows me exactly how much the author (you?) cares about this topic and how much effort they're willing to put into communication, which is barely any at all.

Re: AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because my time is valuable and if the person who sent me something didn't care enough to write it, then I don't care enough to read it. Bragging about it is weird, but I will use it like I use 'RTFM'. And detectability - My AI-DAR (radar), is fairly fined tuned but not perfect, so if I make a mistake, oh well, the point is I'm protecting my time.

So how much time do you deem a minimum amount for someone to spend on some unit of work before you're willing to read it? And what technologies are allowed -- are word processors allowed or does it have to be done with a writing instrument like a pencil? What about spell check? Do you care if they had done their research with a Wikipedia or do you prefer card catalog for the really important work?

I'm not sure. Another way to think about it: how _little_ time is someone able to spend on something where you will still be interested in reading it? If someone tells their unattended LLM agent to create a blog, write whatever content will maximize banner ad revenue, and then share each post on Hacker News, would you read it? What if the content is actually interesting in your opinion?

Re: AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)

#176

I really like the point I read somewhere the other day; instead of sending me the AI output, just send me the prompt you used to generate it. That is the only part that contains only the information you are trying to convey. The rest is just guesses flowery language added, and it confuses the actual message being sent.

I used to do that, but the person could be bad at prompting too (which is often why the LLM couldn't give a good answer in the first place).

So the polite version I use now is: "Hey, just to get a bit more context, what was the original problem you were trying to solve?".

That gets them to distill their own problem a bit further.

Re: AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)

#178

My coworkers continue to dump hundreds of lines of AI documentation in every PR and every other line of code has between one and ten lines of AI generated comments, talking about the real unlock and how things are byte for byte identical on the load bearing path or how the acceptance ladder is misleading. Features are coming out and metrics are improving, but we’re basically in a post readability code base, with the…

You forgot the smoke tests that passed.

Re: AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)

#179
post #46

Eternal September already?

There's been a few. The last one was 2007 when the iPhone changed the internet from a place you went because you wanted to be there and had a reason to engage, into an app meant to entertain you for 5min at a time between text messages and flushing.
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