3 ms·

This may be a matter of personal preference, but I find the style of the replies annoying. When I'm trying to get something done I don't want a bot telling me

This may be a matter of personal preference, but I find the style of the replies annoying. When I'm trying to get something done I don't want a bot telling me what a splendid day it is. I could be 7 layers deep into some rabbit hole with an entire stack of things in my head. Just give me a concise, accurate response.

buggy6257 4y ago
I agree a lot with this. I’ve probably spent more time crafting system prompts to find ways to avoid it doing this. As far as I can tell the best way so far has been to say something like “you are a terse helpful AI who responds in 100 words or less”. The lack of extra words to work with forces the bot to focus hard on exactly the answer I asked for because that’s the part that is useful to me and therefore rewarded.
- ftio 4y ago
  Absolutely. In general, cutesy UIs are fun only the very first time you use them. But they’re a liability in the long term because once the novelty of the cuteness wears off, you risk really annoying your users, and especially in high-stress scenarios.
  - codeisawesome 4y ago
    Somewhat off topic but this is what turns me off about Jarvis / Friday during rewatches of any MCU properties. So unrealistic to have quippy AI be useful in the midst of combat. Also: I just realised that the Avengers would never happen if Stark just realised that launching Jarvis as a product would take the world by storm :D
textninja 4y ago
Seconded! If there’s anywhere we can cut the superfluous social fakery it’s with an AI that obviously doesn’t give two hoots about us or how our day’s been going so far. I found its replies stylistically tedious.
iudqnolq 4y ago
If you wanted a concise, accurate response you could look at the URL and the chart, rather than the AIs guess at what they mean.
splatzone 4y ago
Absolutely agree. It reminds me of all the cute copy I'd read in web apps in 2008. No, a fatal error message is not the time to be cute
- layer8 4y ago
  2008? This is still a thing, maybe more than ever. Recent HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34812857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34812857
taspeotis 4y ago
Sometimes my wife asks me to edit correspondence for her, and I spend a good chunk of time deleting pleasantries. Personally I try and think of "signal to noise ratio" and also respecting the recipient's time when communicating with them. Of course it's not good to be terse to the point of being rude.
- hackernewds 4y ago
  Depends on style really. Curate to your audience

buggy6257 4y ago

I agree a lot with this. I’ve probably spent more time crafting system prompts to find ways to avoid it doing this. As far as I can tell the best way so far has been to say something like “you are a terse helpful AI who responds in 100 words or less”. The lack of extra words to work with forces the bot to focus hard on exactly the answer I asked for because that’s the part that is useful to me and therefore rewarded.

ftio 4y ago
Absolutely. In general, cutesy UIs are fun only the very first time you use them. But they’re a liability in the long term because once the novelty of the cuteness wears off, you risk really annoying your users, and especially in high-stress scenarios.
- codeisawesome 4y ago
  Somewhat off topic but this is what turns me off about Jarvis / Friday during rewatches of any MCU properties. So unrealistic to have quippy AI be useful in the midst of combat. Also: I just realised that the Avengers would never happen if Stark just realised that launching Jarvis as a product would take the world by storm :D

textninja 4y ago

Seconded! If there’s anywhere we can cut the superfluous social fakery it’s with an AI that obviously doesn’t give two hoots about us or how our day’s been going so far. I found its replies stylistically tedious.

iudqnolq 4y ago

If you wanted a concise, accurate response you could look at the URL and the chart, rather than the AIs guess at what they mean.

splatzone 4y ago

Absolutely agree. It reminds me of all the cute copy I'd read in web apps in 2008. No, a fatal error message is not the time to be cute

layer8 4y ago
2008? This is still a thing, maybe more than ever. Recent HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34812857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34812857

taspeotis 4y ago

Sometimes my wife asks me to edit correspondence for her, and I spend a good chunk of time deleting pleasantries. Personally I try and think of "signal to noise ratio" and also respecting the recipient's time when communicating with them. Of course it's not good to be terse to the point of being rude.

hackernewds 4y ago
Depends on style really. Curate to your audience