2 ms·
This anthropomorphism really bothers me. These tools are useful for what they’re good for, but I really dislike the agency people keep trying to give to them.
by madeofpalk 3y ago
This anthropomorphism really bothers me. These tools are useful for what they’re good for, but I really dislike the agency people keep trying to give to them.
- Terr_ 3y agoI think there's always been fine line between anthropomorphism as a metaphorical way to indicate complexity versus a pitfall where people (especially outside of a field) start acting like it's a literal statement. Ex: "the gyroscope is trying to stay upright", or "the computer complains because the update is broken" or "evolution will give the birds longer beaks". That said, I agree that the problem is dramatically more-severe when it comes to "AI".
- _akhe 3y agoIt should also bother marketers in the AI industry because it confuses people on what the incredible value is. So many people think LLM means chatbot, even here on HN. So many people think agent means mentally humanoid. But we have others, like Stable Diffusion's Web UI and Leonardo.AI - these are just tools with interfaces and the text entry for prompting is not presented as though it's a conversation between 2 people. Someone shared an AI songmaker here recently... And there's a number of promising RAG tools for improving workflows for: Doctors, mechanics, researchers, lawyers. I agree with you and expect the "AI character" use case to narrow significantly.