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I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel

simonwillison.net

21–30 of 346 posts

Re: I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel

#21
post #6

This quote is pulled from a TikTok, I recommend watching the whole thing here: https://www.tiktok.com/@belligerentbarbies/video/75683800086... (I pulled the quote by using yt-dlp to grab the MP4 and then running that through MacWhisper to generate a transcript.)

It's a little over two paragraphs. Seems like it would have been simpler just to... type it out?

Re: I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel

#22
post #21
post #6

This quote is pulled from a TikTok, I recommend watching the whole thing here: https://www.tiktok.com/@belligerentbarbies/video/75683800086... (I pulled the quote by using yt-dlp to grab the MP4 and then running that through MacWhisper to generate a transcript.)

It's a little over two paragraphs. Seems like it would have been simpler just to... type it out?

Where's the fun in that? :D

Re: I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel

#23

Co-pilot and AI has been shoved at the Microsoft Stack in my org for months. Most of the features were disabled or hopelessly bad. It’s cheaper for Microsoft to push this junk and claim they’re doing something, it’s going to improve their stock far more than not doing it, even though it’s basically useless currently. Another issue is that my org disallows AI transcription bots. It’s a legit security risk if you have…

Transcription is arguably one of the must useful enterprise AI tools avaliable. But i sure as heck wouldn't trust the cloud with it.

Re: I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel

#24
post #2

At some point, a publicly-listed company will go bankrupt due to some catastrophic AI-induced fuck-up. This is a massive reputational risk for AI platforms, because ego-defensive behaviour guarantees that the people involved will make as much noise as they can about how it's all the AI's fault.

That will never happen, AI cannot be allowed to fail, so we'll be paying for that AI bail-out.

Re: I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel

#25
Hmmm the Brendas I know look a little different.

“There are two Brendas - their job is to make spreadsheets in the Finance department. Well, not quite - they add the months and categories to empty spreadsheets, then they ask the other departments to fill in their sales numbers every month so it can be presented to management.

“The two Brendas don’t seem to talk, otherwise they would realize that they’re both asking everyone for the same information, twice. And they’re so focused on their little spreadsheet worlds that neither sees enough of the bigger picture to say, ‘Wait… couldn’t we just automate this so we don’t need to do this song and dance every month? Then we wouldn’t need two people in different parts of the company compiling the same data manually.’

“But that’s not what Brenda was hired for. She’s a spreadsheet person, not a process fixer. She just makes the spreadsheets.”

We need fewer Brendas, and more people who can automate away the need for them.

Re: I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel

#26
Excel is the “beast that drives the ENTIRE economy” and he’s worried about Brenda from the finance department losing her job because then her boss will get bad financial reports

I suppose the person that wrote that have not ideia Excel is just an app builder where you embed data together with code.

You know that we have excel because computers didn’t understand column names in databases and so data extraction needed to be made by humans. Humans then design those little apps in excel to massage the data.

Well, now an agent can read the boss saying gimme the sales from last month and the agent don’t need excel for that, because it can query the database itself, massage the data itself using python and present the data itself with html or PNGs.

So, we are in the process of automating Brenda AND excel away.

Also, finance departments are a very small part of excel users. Just think everywhere were people need small programs, excel is there.

Re: I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel

#27
post #2

At some point, a publicly-listed company will go bankrupt due to some catastrophic AI-induced fuck-up. This is a massive reputational risk for AI platforms, because ego-defensive behaviour guarantees that the people involved will make as much noise as they can about how it's all the AI's fault.

I see the inverse of that happening: every critical decision will incorporate AI somehow. If the decision was good, the leadership takes credit. If something terrible happens, blame it on the AI. I think it's the part no one is saying out loud. That AI may not do a damn useful thing, but it can be a free insurance policy or surrogate to throw under the bus when SHTF.

Re: I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel

#28
post #26

Excel is the “beast that drives the ENTIRE economy” and he’s worried about Brenda from the finance department losing her job because then her boss will get bad financial reports I suppose the person that wrote that have not ideia Excel is just an app builder where you embed data together with code. You know that we have excel because computers didn’t understand column names in databases and so data extraction needed…

You missed this bit “.. and then the AI is gonna fuck it up real bad and he won't be able to recognize it because he doesn't understand because AI hallucinates.”

Re: I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel

#29

Hmmm the Brendas I know look a little different. “There are two Brendas - their job is to make spreadsheets in the Finance department. Well, not quite - they add the months and categories to empty spreadsheets, then they ask the other departments to fill in their sales numbers every month so it can be presented to management. “The two Brendas don’t seem to talk, otherwise they would realize that they’re both asking e…

"We need fewer Brendas, and more people who can automate away the need for them."

True... I have an on-staff data engineer for the purpose. But not all companies (especially in the SMB space) have that luxury.

Re: I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel

#30
post #21
post #6

This quote is pulled from a TikTok, I recommend watching the whole thing here: https://www.tiktok.com/@belligerentbarbies/video/75683800086... (I pulled the quote by using yt-dlp to grab the MP4 and then running that through MacWhisper to generate a transcript.)

It's a little over two paragraphs. Seems like it would have been simpler just to... type it out?

Well if you do it once then yes, but if you automate this process it is different. E.g. I do this with YouTube videos, because watching 14 minutes video or reading 30 seconds summary is time saver. I still watch some videos fully, but many of them are not worth it.

So in summary I think it was just part of automated process (maybe) or it will become one in the future.

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