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That screenshot about renting and dogs... Who would think that's a good idea? * Is it people who have trouble with reading comprehension, and don't understand

by neilv 3y ago

That screenshot about renting and dogs... Who would think that's a good idea? * Is it people who have trouble with reading comprehension, and don't understand that other people can read a lot more into writing than they do? * People who are insincere? * People who think corporate-BS language like "for your protection" and "due to unusually high call volumes" is professional- and smart-sounding? * People who want to create more utter BS filler in the world for some reason. (See SEO, or the eBay seller feature to create bulk of lies like "the total solution for all your computing needs", etc.) The only scenario I can think of to which I'm sympathetic is non-native speakers who aren't fluent, and who need a translator, or are afraid of politeness faux pas. But even that has pitfalls: a reader with basic reading comprehension is going to infer things about the 'writer' that simply aren't true. For example, a milquetoast LLM like ChatGPT hits some native idioms, and the reader doesn't realize that there's a huge cultural disconnect in awareness and meaning. Even if the text is even superficially saying what the non-fluent person intended (and even that isn't a given, since they're not fluent enough to check).

skywhopper 3y ago
Yeah, nothing about this looks necessary or advisable. The only people who want this are the Google PMs who have to “integrate AI” by Q2.
- neilv 3y ago
  Are we leaving the era when adtech and surveillance by Google were things we could look past, because they mitigated it with some older-era good things? (I still love the 3D view in Google Maps.)
- chaosmonger7 3y ago
  It is always telling when they can't even come up with good example uses from the entire space of possible uses "leave a well-written review for a restaurant, craft a friendly RSVP for a party, or make a formal inquiry about an apartment rental.” That is what the world needs. More restaurant reviews.
hathawsh 3y ago
Both of the texts are suboptimal in different ways. The original text is: im interested in this place - do you allow dogs? Some readers will assume the writer is not well educated because "im" should be capitalized and there should be an apostrophe. Other readers will notice the use of a hyphen, which is not very common in written text; it reveals that the writer may actually be educated but writing quickly. A well educated reader will see both of those signals and recognize that this is too little information to reliably judge the writer. The AI version of the text is overly formal and verbose, making it clear that the writer does not wish to reveal their level of education. I think that's the reason people might be interested in this.
- saintfire 3y ago
  Its interesting when all you seem to factor in is level of education, implying it's the most important metric for selecting tenants. I'd contend its hardly relevant. My only gut impressions is the first seems rather nonchalant, which is sort of strange when entering a presumably expensive contract. The longer response just feels very boilerplate to the point where I'd question if its not the opening to a blanket scam message. I guess an important takeaway is that everyone perceives interactions in different ways and that's really why this whole thing is relevant.
  - hathawsh 3y ago
    I think of it more from the writer's perspective. In my experience, a large number of people shy away from writing anything because they feel they cannot write in a way that makes them sound smart. (And if they're not smart, they believe the recipient will not be interested in helping them.) I think there's value in tech companies helping people overcome that fear.
    - neilv 3y ago
      I think you've found a legitimate use for this. (As a stopgap measure, for better education.) Sadly, I don't think that will be the majority of the use. Also, if this were the target use case, the use case could be adapted to the larger problem of tutoring/coaching feedback, to help the person learn and improve, not "write my essay for me, I don't much care what it says, just make me look smart".

by neilv 3y ago

skywhopper 3y ago

Yeah, nothing about this looks necessary or advisable. The only people who want this are the Google PMs who have to “integrate AI” by Q2.

neilv 3y ago
Are we leaving the era when adtech and surveillance by Google were things we could look past, because they mitigated it with some older-era good things? (I still love the 3D view in Google Maps.)
chaosmonger7 3y ago
It is always telling when they can't even come up with good example uses from the entire space of possible uses "leave a well-written review for a restaurant, craft a friendly RSVP for a party, or make a formal inquiry about an apartment rental.” That is what the world needs. More restaurant reviews.

hathawsh 3y ago

Both of the texts are suboptimal in different ways. The original text is: im interested in this place - do you allow dogs? Some readers will assume the writer is not well educated because "im" should be capitalized and there should be an apostrophe. Other readers will notice the use of a hyphen, which is not very common in written text; it reveals that the writer may actually be educated but writing quickly. A well educated reader will see both of those signals and recognize that this is too little information to reliably judge the writer. The AI version of the text is overly formal and verbose, making it clear that the writer does not wish to reveal their level of education. I think that's the reason people might be interested in this.

saintfire 3y ago
Its interesting when all you seem to factor in is level of education, implying it's the most important metric for selecting tenants. I'd contend its hardly relevant. My only gut impressions is the first seems rather nonchalant, which is sort of strange when entering a presumably expensive contract. The longer response just feels very boilerplate to the point where I'd question if its not the opening to a blanket scam message. I guess an important takeaway is that everyone perceives interactions in different ways and that's really why this whole thing is relevant.
- hathawsh 3y ago
  I think of it more from the writer's perspective. In my experience, a large number of people shy away from writing anything because they feel they cannot write in a way that makes them sound smart. (And if they're not smart, they believe the recipient will not be interested in helping them.) I think there's value in tech companies helping people overcome that fear.
  - neilv 3y ago
    I think you've found a legitimate use for this. (As a stopgap measure, for better education.) Sadly, I don't think that will be the majority of the use. Also, if this were the target use case, the use case could be adapted to the larger problem of tutoring/coaching feedback, to help the person learn and improve, not "write my essay for me, I don't much care what it says, just make me look smart".