4 ms·

I saw a Google AI advert that said: "Hey Gemini, write an apology email for my friend. I can't make their wedding." That's not a future I want to live in, and

I saw a Google AI advert that said: "Hey Gemini, write an apology email for my friend. I can't make their wedding." That's not a future I want to live in, and I love making machines work for me. Thats not what I want my children to think is OK. A friend of mine is a teacher and kids are already delegating their learning to ChatGPT and their learning isn't sticking. What happens when social skills are delegated too?

foolfoolz 2y ago
you’ll just have your ai email reader read the apology emails for you
devsda 2y ago
I guess the future is 1. Friend sends an apology email drafted by LLM. 2. Email gets summarized at the receiver end in the daily AI email "summary" which might be something like You have a scheduled cake tasting this weekend. Did you know there's a bakery near your office that makes wedding cakes too. By the way your friend Joe can't make it to the wedding, do you want me to send a reply? 3. Reply email gets summarized by AI. "Your friend acknowledges that you cannot rsvp. Do you want to schedule a wedding gift delivery on their wedding day ? XYZ neighborhood/online store has a sale next week".
- noman-land 2y ago
  You can skip the piles and piles of linguistic bullshit and wasted energy with a json API.
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    I.e. another scenario that could (and should?) be handled entirely through a calendar app?
  - madethisnow 2y ago
    why would anyone email, you can just send a letter in the mail?
- mosquitobiten 2y ago
  4. Awkward situation ensues when you both meet at a location AI recommended to you both just after telling it to lie about your schedule.
BLKNSLVR 2y ago
"Hey Gemini, maintain my friendships" ... back to Fortnite / Minecraft / pr0n / alcohol / drugs ... "My AI has more friends than your AI!"
energy123 2y ago
> "A friend of mine is a teacher and kids are already delegating their learning to ChatGPT and their learning isn't sticking." What about this: https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/education/From-chalkboards-to-chatbots-Transforming-learning-in-Nigeria https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/education/From-chalkboards-to...
- snarg 2y ago
  "students took a pen-and-paper test to assess their performance in three key areas: English language—the primary focus of the pilot—AI knowledge, and digital skills." So... not a biased assessment, or anything.
makeitdouble 2y ago
If you really care about this issue, I think we've brought it on ourselves. Regarding teaching kids, we've set messaging templates for occasions that are at the center of our lives. We have Hallmark greeting cards to express feelings to people close to our hearts. If there's a template for expressing someone you're sorry their mother died, or happy they have a baby, I'm not sure throwing the stone at AI use is warranted. In a way, I wonder if it will be the wake up call that will make simple and genuine communication acceptable again, without all the boilerplate we've built to feign care and emotions.
- tdeck 2y ago
  People always criticize Hallmark but it was never my understanding that the pre-written sentiment in those cards in any way obviated the need to write your own message. In fact, apart from generic Christmas cards you might get from insurers, and "thank you" cards from charities, I can't think of a time I've gotten such a card without a personal message written in it. Are people really buying the "sorry for your loss" cards, just signing under the prewritten text, and sending them to someone?
  - bobnamob 2y ago
    If my in-laws are any indication, yes. 15 years and I’ve only ever had “Dear bobnamob, <pre printed seasonal or birthday pleasantry> Love, <in-law x> & <in-law y>”
    - noman-land 2y ago
      Can I recommend that you do the same to them except write your handwritten parts on the back of the card.
  - makeitdouble 2y ago
    There's a spectrum, including people who write almost nothing but choose really nice and non standard cards that properly convey they took time and effort find that specific one, and the people who use generic cards with 1500 words written on every free space they could find on the card. My main gripe with cards with pre-written message is they deprive from the choice to write simple and obvious things. If your card already says "Happy Birthday" it will just be that much lazier for you to only write that on the dedicated space for a personal message. In a way, a blank card with only these word would probably work better, and I feel people too often overlook that choice and go the Hallmark way instead because it feels like the default. Or plain bail out of the interaction because it just become a hurdle to them as they don't find anything else to say.
hnlmorg 2y ago
> A friend of mine is a teacher and kids are already delegating their learning to ChatGPT and their learning isn't sticking. I’m not going to defend AI here because I seldom use it myself. But it should be noted that the way we learn has already undergone multiple different shifts due to changes in technology. Search engine were a big one. No longer did we have to learn to memorise stuff nor learn how to research properly. Now we could just type a phrase into Google / whatever and get results. So people learned how to search rather than learning the facts itself.
mike_hearn 2y ago
Gemini's marketing is so bad. This isn't the first time they ran an ad that makes you wonder what's going on there. It really says a lot that an advertising company understands what makes for good advertising so poorly these days.
- Zambyte 2y ago
  We're talking about it here. It seems like the multi trillion dollar company might actually be onto something.
  - devnullbrain 2y ago
    We talked quite extensively about Stadia
    - Zambyte 2y ago
      Sorry. It seems like the multi trillion dollar advertising company might actually be onto something regarding advertising.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
kylehotchkiss 2y ago
Second law of thermodynamics says these models will all eventually collapse (due to overtraining on their own output) to yelling gibberish at us, and biology will continue to remain the only force in the universe capable of maintaining order despite increasing entropy. I think we'll be OK.

foolfoolz 2y ago

you’ll just have your ai email reader read the apology emails for you

devsda 2y ago

I guess the future is 1. Friend sends an apology email drafted by LLM. 2. Email gets summarized at the receiver end in the daily AI email "summary" which might be something like You have a scheduled cake tasting this weekend. Did you know there's a bakery near your office that makes wedding cakes too. By the way your friend Joe can't make it to the wedding, do you want me to send a reply? 3. Reply email gets summarized by AI. "Your friend acknowledges that you cannot rsvp. Do you want to schedule a wedding gift delivery on their wedding day ? XYZ neighborhood/online store has a sale next week".

noman-land 2y ago
You can skip the piles and piles of linguistic bullshit and wasted energy with a json API.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  I.e. another scenario that could (and should?) be handled entirely through a calendar app?
- madethisnow 2y ago
  why would anyone email, you can just send a letter in the mail?
mosquitobiten 2y ago
4. Awkward situation ensues when you both meet at a location AI recommended to you both just after telling it to lie about your schedule.

BLKNSLVR 2y ago

"Hey Gemini, maintain my friendships" ... back to Fortnite / Minecraft / pr0n / alcohol / drugs ... "My AI has more friends than your AI!"

energy123 2y ago

> "A friend of mine is a teacher and kids are already delegating their learning to ChatGPT and their learning isn't sticking." What about this: https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/education/From-chalkboards-to-chatbots-Transforming-learning-in-Nigeria https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/education/From-chalkboards-to...

snarg 2y ago
"students took a pen-and-paper test to assess their performance in three key areas: English language—the primary focus of the pilot—AI knowledge, and digital skills." So... not a biased assessment, or anything.

makeitdouble 2y ago

If you really care about this issue, I think we've brought it on ourselves. Regarding teaching kids, we've set messaging templates for occasions that are at the center of our lives. We have Hallmark greeting cards to express feelings to people close to our hearts. If there's a template for expressing someone you're sorry their mother died, or happy they have a baby, I'm not sure throwing the stone at AI use is warranted. In a way, I wonder if it will be the wake up call that will make simple and genuine communication acceptable again, without all the boilerplate we've built to feign care and emotions.

tdeck 2y ago
People always criticize Hallmark but it was never my understanding that the pre-written sentiment in those cards in any way obviated the need to write your own message. In fact, apart from generic Christmas cards you might get from insurers, and "thank you" cards from charities, I can't think of a time I've gotten such a card without a personal message written in it. Are people really buying the "sorry for your loss" cards, just signing under the prewritten text, and sending them to someone?
- bobnamob 2y ago
  If my in-laws are any indication, yes. 15 years and I’ve only ever had “Dear bobnamob, <pre printed seasonal or birthday pleasantry> Love, <in-law x> & <in-law y>”
  - noman-land 2y ago
    Can I recommend that you do the same to them except write your handwritten parts on the back of the card.
- makeitdouble 2y ago
  There's a spectrum, including people who write almost nothing but choose really nice and non standard cards that properly convey they took time and effort find that specific one, and the people who use generic cards with 1500 words written on every free space they could find on the card. My main gripe with cards with pre-written message is they deprive from the choice to write simple and obvious things. If your card already says "Happy Birthday" it will just be that much lazier for you to only write that on the dedicated space for a personal message. In a way, a blank card with only these word would probably work better, and I feel people too often overlook that choice and go the Hallmark way instead because it feels like the default. Or plain bail out of the interaction because it just become a hurdle to them as they don't find anything else to say.

hnlmorg 2y ago

> A friend of mine is a teacher and kids are already delegating their learning to ChatGPT and their learning isn't sticking. I’m not going to defend AI here because I seldom use it myself. But it should be noted that the way we learn has already undergone multiple different shifts due to changes in technology. Search engine were a big one. No longer did we have to learn to memorise stuff nor learn how to research properly. Now we could just type a phrase into Google / whatever and get results. So people learned how to search rather than learning the facts itself.

mike_hearn 2y ago

Gemini's marketing is so bad. This isn't the first time they ran an ad that makes you wonder what's going on there. It really says a lot that an advertising company understands what makes for good advertising so poorly these days.

Zambyte 2y ago
We're talking about it here. It seems like the multi trillion dollar company might actually be onto something.
- devnullbrain 2y ago
  We talked quite extensively about Stadia
  - Zambyte 2y ago
    Sorry. It seems like the multi trillion dollar advertising company might actually be onto something regarding advertising.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

kylehotchkiss 2y ago

Second law of thermodynamics says these models will all eventually collapse (due to overtraining on their own output) to yelling gibberish at us, and biology will continue to remain the only force in the universe capable of maintaining order despite increasing entropy. I think we'll be OK.