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AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

washingtonpost.com

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Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#71

Post by Aeolun »

asabla wrote: post #5
skeeter2020 wrote: post #2

I feel this is a symptom of poor meetings, where they are used for information exchange (which I think should come before the meeting) instead of collaboration and problem solving. You could save your time and a bunch of AI-generated notes you'll never read with the simple rule of "no agenda, no attenda". Remote has allowed us to adopt meeting policies that would never exist in-person: giant, long, back-to-back sessi…

> no agenda, no attenda I've been using this mentality for the last three years. Some responds with hostility and some see the benefits, but most are just indifferent to it sadly. I've also been observing people just throw in a short sentence or some AI generated shit list which is then not followed during the meeting. But those who take this seriously usually have pretty darn good meetings (e.g not book the full hou…

I like my meeting where we don’t have a fixed agenda but anyone can bring something up. If there’s nothing, we just end the meeting.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#72

Post by timewizard »

footlose_3815 wrote: post #30

These apps are cancer. Otter.ai for example, by default, will scrape the call's contacts, and email every single one, saying they can access the notes if they sign-up. A 300 person meeting, their spam bot sends out 300 emails. Totally captive audience, and the person who installed the notetaker is often none the wiser that it happened. Even if just one person installs it, it resets the iteration and can begin again.…

I mean.. it's literally sending an audio stream of the meeting and it's contents to an external server? It's not even malware. This is a virus.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#73

Post by vjvjvjvjghv »

apwell23 wrote: post #19
jawns wrote: post #4

I bet there are a bunch of people in upper management who hear about this phenomenon and think that employees are skipping meetings to slack off (appearing to do work but they're actually playing Mario Kart). In reality, it's more likely that they're being judged on their attendance of BS meetings, but if they attend the BS meetings, they won't be able to make the BS deadlines they're responsible for hitting. So they…

> it's more likely that they're being judged on their attendance of BS meetings Some middle manager types in my company track emoji reactions to their messages in slack. I got written up for it, no joke. That was easy to automate though.

That’s next level.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#74

Post by hobs »

meroes wrote: post #65

The problem is these meetings are so low information density even an AI summary is not worth my time. And it’s not some elitist mindset. It’s like the entire reason there are these regular meetings is to make some mid level person feel better. They like giving directions vocally because that authority is harder to question than if they wrote up a memo and all the receivers can poke holes in it. I’m convinced most mee…

The last sentence is it - most people can't communicate much less write well, hell, I don't write well, but I hope my ideas are at least clearly communicated.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#75

Post by woah »

Aeolun wrote: post #66
pj_mukh wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having had been on both sides of this coin, I agree a lot of managers mis-manage meetings. But then there's those engineers who don't show up to meetings and then a month later come to you with a "I don't know how we're deciding on some of these critical product features" and I don't know how to tell them its because they skipped some meetings where they could've been part of that discussion.

> and I don't know how to tell them its because they skipped some meetings where they could've been part of that discussion. That there was a meeting where that decision was made between 55 minutes of crud doesn’t really mean anything to me though. I’m not wasting an hour of my day every day on the off chance today’s meeting will contain anything of importance.

Then just implement it I guess

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#76

Post by woah »

pk-protect-ai wrote: post #37
pj_mukh wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having had been on both sides of this coin, I agree a lot of managers mis-manage meetings. But then there's those engineers who don't show up to meetings and then a month later come to you with a "I don't know how we're deciding on some of these critical product features" and I don't know how to tell them its because they skipped some meetings where they could've been part of that discussion.

That's the thing, these meetings are B.S. Engineers need a task, time to think, and write about the solution and its cost. Period. Talking in a room full of people who love to hear their own voices and love to stroke their egos does not actually help engineers do their job. When engineers need to communicate, they communicate with their colleagues. There are tools for such communications that do not require talking a…

> Engineers need a task, time to think, and write about the solution and its cost. Period. Talking in a room full of people who love to hear their own voices and love to stroke their egos does not actually help engineers do their job. When engineers need to communicate, they communicate with their colleagues.

Seems like when you say "engineers", you mean "people with my exact personality"

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#77

Post by Leo-thorne »

I use AI to take meeting notes too, and it really makes things easier. I can focus more on listening. But sometimes it changes the vibe a bit, like we’re all just talking to a bunch of bots. Now I only use it when I’m leading the meeting, and I always ask if others are okay with it. The tool is helpful, but real human connection still matters.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#78

Post by DonsDiscountGas »

nlawalker wrote: post #69

In my experience, at least, it's because a lot of "meetings" aren't actually meetings, they're presentations that are actually better consumed async after the fact, but historical precedent demands that everyone be invited to attend the live taping and emote and cheer politely.

It's not just historical precedent, it's about creating common knowledge that everybody has received the relevant information

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#79

Post by gexla »

My take on this... a small meeting among close people can have big payoffs. Much of the payoff is fast transfer due to total communication (body language, casual, back and forth) and then that loses it's power as the meeting gets less intimate. The unexpected face to face conversations and the overall environment are what makes in-office work well. Big meetings lose much of that power. Zoom meetings lose much more of that power. AI note taking sessions... might as well not even bother. Just send docs that of course nobody will read. This is just cargo-culting.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#80

Post by chongli »

Scarblac wrote: post #7
asabla wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no agenda, no attenda I've been using this mentality for the last three years. Some responds with hostility and some see the benefits, but most are just indifferent to it sadly. I've also been observing people just throw in a short sentence or some AI generated shit list which is then not followed during the meeting. But those who take this seriously usually have pretty darn good meetings (e.g not book the full hou…

What do you do if you skip such a meeting and a decision you don't like but that you can't weigh in on anymore is taken there?

That’s where you have stakeholders within a company and you require sign-off for decisions that affect them.
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