3 ms·

The AI has some ... "ideas" ... of its own on what workplace relationships apparently need to be like.

escapecharacter 2y ago
A lot of people who want to replace most human interactions with LLMs assume that there is some objective set of cultural values true in all contexts, and that it is good and easy to encode these as axioms into an AI.
- tclancy 2y ago
  Yes. As an Old now (GenX), I feel like moving all interactions to text and now having AI as a man in the middle is just reinventing ways to get in a situation where a decade down the line you reconnect with someone who used to be a friend and both discover "Hey, that wasn't what I meant at all!" As ever, T.S. Eliot was right: "It is impossible to say just what I mean!"
- rsynnott 2y ago
  And those objective set of cultural values are, apparently... a sort of parody of 90s corporate culture, a sort of polite version of Michael Scott. Like, no-one ever _actually_ wrote like LLMs tend to write; it reads as a parody of a now slightly obsolete corporate-speak.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
bunderbunder 2y ago
Have you read the papers on how they optimize these LLMs for demeanor? AI exists in a Matrix where toxic positivity is enforced with electric shocks.
- cmrdporcupine 2y ago
  It's the California Ideology, now written into a program. When I was at Google this tone was so pervasive that we had "CongratBot" to make fun of this stuff, and Memegen to somewhat counteract it. But Silly Valley is the poster-child for "hey don't be a downer" communications vibes. As the child of a super-critical German father, it always seems insincere to me.
nicbou 2y ago
And those ideas seem far more in line with millenial Silicon Valley culture. It's weird when they expect Germans to fake that sort of overly formal, overly cheery tone. People just don't talk like that.
- cmrdporcupine 2y ago
  Yeah, my father is German, and I'm Canadian, but of a .. grouchy ... variety. This kind of business culture has never really fit with me. But it's how the people with the $$ speak.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

A lot of people who want to replace most human interactions with LLMs assume that there is some objective set of cultural values true in all contexts, and that it is good and easy to encode these as axioms into an AI.

tclancy 2y ago
Yes. As an Old now (GenX), I feel like moving all interactions to text and now having AI as a man in the middle is just reinventing ways to get in a situation where a decade down the line you reconnect with someone who used to be a friend and both discover "Hey, that wasn't what I meant at all!" As ever, T.S. Eliot was right: "It is impossible to say just what I mean!"
rsynnott 2y ago
And those objective set of cultural values are, apparently... a sort of parody of 90s corporate culture, a sort of polite version of Michael Scott. Like, no-one ever _actually_ wrote like LLMs tend to write; it reads as a parody of a now slightly obsolete corporate-speak.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

bunderbunder 2y ago

Have you read the papers on how they optimize these LLMs for demeanor? AI exists in a Matrix where toxic positivity is enforced with electric shocks.

cmrdporcupine 2y ago
It's the California Ideology, now written into a program. When I was at Google this tone was so pervasive that we had "CongratBot" to make fun of this stuff, and Memegen to somewhat counteract it. But Silly Valley is the poster-child for "hey don't be a downer" communications vibes. As the child of a super-critical German father, it always seems insincere to me.

nicbou 2y ago

And those ideas seem far more in line with millenial Silicon Valley culture. It's weird when they expect Germans to fake that sort of overly formal, overly cheery tone. People just don't talk like that.

cmrdporcupine 2y ago
Yeah, my father is German, and I'm Canadian, but of a .. grouchy ... variety. This kind of business culture has never really fit with me. But it's how the people with the $$ speak.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]