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I'm Tired of Talking to AI

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Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It should be considered common courtesy that when you ask a question you have at least attempted a bit of research to find the answer on your own. In my professional experience. About 1 in 10 people does that. Maybe, 2 in 10.

In my line of work, its certain peoples' jobs to know certain things. If I need a piece of information that somebody else is responsible for understanding, I'm just going to ask directly for what I need instead of trying to research it myself. To research it myself would mean attempting to do somebody else's job, which is just unhelpful for everyone.

There is a line between "somebodies job to know" and you just being too lazy to look at the documentation/do basic research.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#332

This is just the modern equivalent of "just google it". Which at the time was a rude but effective way of telling people to get off their ass and figure it out themselves instead of being lazy and expecting others to solve their issues. You wanting to talk to someone means you are desiring to occupy their time and attention. Depending on the person, it helps if you actually have a good case for this and if you can co…

>This is just the modern equivalent of "just google it". I don't think that is always the case. Sometimes it is. Other times the social cues and later follow up makes it seem the person thought they were being really helpful, not sarcastic, by sending the response. Yet other times, the person acts as if it was their own response and not the AI's, almost akin to passing off the AI's work as their own. This is most not…

I can't judge the specific situation. But if this happens to you a lot, I'd suggest looking at how you are asking things from other people (i.e. how you communicate).

> original question shows effort was put into it

What matters is how the other side interprets it, not your level of effort or your expectations. If the other side apparently doesn't get what you wanted to happen, that's a communication issue.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#333

>But even when I talk to people, they forward my questions to AI and send me the AI’s answer. This is the killer issue. It's so profoundly saddenning, it feels like watching an adult being asked a question and calling mom to answer for them. There is something deeply disturbing in it that makes me feel I'm not talking to a self sufficient entity.

True but how many times have people sent someone "let me google that for you". Some people are inherently lazy and unload their laziness to someone else to do the thinking for them. I still think sending someone an AI answer is terrible but then again, if you are going to ask me for help, at least make some effort first. EDIT: By laziness I mean that there are known places (they know of) with documentation that cover…

I see a ton of this inherently lazy behavior. A big part of my job is supporting a ticket system for employees to ask questions about a pretty complex employment contract. The number of questions that come in where it's so clear the submitter didn't even attempt to answer on their own is dumb founding.

Because of this work, I'm seen by many of my peers as a "guy with all the answers". A friend of mine recently asked me about a policy at work to which I replied I was about 90% certain of the answer. I then explained to get to 100% I'd go to the company Intranet and look up the policy, something he could have done in the time it took us to have this exchange over text messaging.

It seems like we're slowly losing the ability to go and do research on our own. I suspect many never really developed these skills that well to begin with and now with an all knowing "oracle" they're even less inclined to work on them.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m pretty sure the amount of care for fellow coworkers is normally distributed… so it makes sense the way below average just do that. Heck the bottom decile would probably directly tell folks to pound sand if they could get away with it.

But "Go away I'm a curmudgeon" is an honest signal. Honest signals are required for a trust-based workplace. Whether you want a person to be a curmudgeon at work aside, knowing what they really are like and what they will do when you need something is foundational for trust. AI washes that away. Everyone replies with AI voice, so nobody replies with honest signals, not the good / helpful folks or the curmudgeon unhel…

Well you should probably find a workplace that doesnt punish the “curmudgeons” for directly saying that.

I doubt that will become a widespread norm within this century at least.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#335
post #233

It’s going to turn out that LLM “AI” is one of the inventions like nuclear weapons that can severely regress an advanced civilization. Sometimes it even feels like it is likely to corrupt sentience itself, degrading it into mere cargo cult imitation. After all, if the only one in the room “thinking” is a statistical model of the thought that came before it, how could this be anything other than a dead end. We have a…

Cargo-culting has "a rich history."

Others call it a proud tradition (as opposed to a useful tradition).

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#336
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if they aren't presenting proof of doing research or they don't have the benefit of doubt (e.g. a new hire, etc.) they're being rude by not doing the research in the first place.

I’m sorry but nobody behaves this way. Nobody sits around in every conversation showing their homework/proving they tried to find an answer before asking somebody else. It is incredibly common to just ask somebody a question and expect an answer regardless if you could’ve looked up yourself. It’s important to not make everybody do your research for you, but what you’re describing is not at all typical.

It's not typical but it's how you should personally act.

You aren't going to be able to convince others to be upstanding coworkers that actually give a damn, but you can be that person yourself.

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find your comment a bit funny > Try prompting Claude to fix an arbitrary code base better than someone who knows it, when you're a random non-technical person. I've seen people employed working on some code bases that couldn't code at all. > Try prompting Claude for legal advice and getting as good of results as Lawyer would if you're a layperson. Some lawyers are downright incompetent and don't know what they're t…

ai good cos some ppl bad.

[deleted]

Re: I'm Tired of Talking to AI

#339
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if they aren't presenting proof of doing research or they don't have the benefit of doubt (e.g. a new hire, etc.) they're being rude by not doing the research in the first place.

I’m sorry but nobody behaves this way. Nobody sits around in every conversation showing their homework/proving they tried to find an answer before asking somebody else. It is incredibly common to just ask somebody a question and expect an answer regardless if you could’ve looked up yourself. It’s important to not make everybody do your research for you, but what you’re describing is not at all typical.

I'm not particularly sorry, but when I ask questions out of the blue over email or chat, I always explain what I've already tried. The two exceptions are when it's urgent, in which case I briefly explain the urgency ("prod is down did you deploy just now?"), or when it's part of an ongoing conversation.

If this is not typical for you, then you are surrounded by people who disrespect you and your time.

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