3 ms·

Why is it that now of all times, when we could actually make it useful, Clippy has not returned to ask, "It looks like you're trying to X, would you like help w

Why is it that now of all times, when we could actually make it useful, Clippy has not returned to ask, "It looks like you're trying to X, would you like help with that?"

autoexec 2y ago
Don't give them ideas. We can't actually make it useful. AI isn't I enough.
- sumeetv 2y ago
  I'm not sure if I agree with that. Given enough context, tools should be able to get a sense of what we're trying to do. Even suggested next steps / things to ask, which we're already seeing in tools like Cove, ChatGPT, etc., go a long way in guiding users. Guiding people to what they likely want to do is great product design when accurate and could be minimally painful if it's easy to ignore the suggestions.
  - autoexec 2y ago
    I agree that tools should, but what I've seen of AI so far has not impressed me at all. It's constantly getting things wrong by either making something up or selectively ignoring parts of what I said to it. Worse, one of the biggest reasons people hated Clippy was that it was obtrusive. Much to Microsoft's surprise, people didn't actually need any help writing a letter, but that didn't stop Clippy from interrupting you while you were trying to work. Writers in particular hate distractions. They'll occasionally go to some fairly extreme lengths to get a distraction free environment (sometimes even sticking to pencils or typewriters). Considering how hard AI is being rammed down our throats everywhere already, I have zero confidence that AI Clippy would be anything but obtrusive and obnoxious. At best, it'd be a feature that people turn off as soon as they see it's been forced on them. Maybe one day we'll actually see AGI and instead of Clippy we'll get a system wide, entirely local, fully open, privacy protecting virtual assistant that's worth a damn. I can't say it wouldn't be nice if it worked like science fiction. My bet is that we're far more likely to get stuck with a bunch of annoying spyware programs, Bonzi Buddy style, using an LLM to fake intelligence, push ads/manipulate users, and deflect accountability.

Why is it that now of all times, when we could actually make it useful, Clippy has not returned to ask, "It looks like you're trying to X, would you like help with that?"

autoexec 2y ago

Don't give them ideas. We can't actually make it useful. AI isn't I enough.

sumeetv 2y ago
I'm not sure if I agree with that. Given enough context, tools should be able to get a sense of what we're trying to do. Even suggested next steps / things to ask, which we're already seeing in tools like Cove, ChatGPT, etc., go a long way in guiding users. Guiding people to what they likely want to do is great product design when accurate and could be minimally painful if it's easy to ignore the suggestions.
- autoexec 2y ago
  I agree that tools should, but what I've seen of AI so far has not impressed me at all. It's constantly getting things wrong by either making something up or selectively ignoring parts of what I said to it. Worse, one of the biggest reasons people hated Clippy was that it was obtrusive. Much to Microsoft's surprise, people didn't actually need any help writing a letter, but that didn't stop Clippy from interrupting you while you were trying to work. Writers in particular hate distractions. They'll occasionally go to some fairly extreme lengths to get a distraction free environment (sometimes even sticking to pencils or typewriters). Considering how hard AI is being rammed down our throats everywhere already, I have zero confidence that AI Clippy would be anything but obtrusive and obnoxious. At best, it'd be a feature that people turn off as soon as they see it's been forced on them. Maybe one day we'll actually see AGI and instead of Clippy we'll get a system wide, entirely local, fully open, privacy protecting virtual assistant that's worth a damn. I can't say it wouldn't be nice if it worked like science fiction. My bet is that we're far more likely to get stuck with a bunch of annoying spyware programs, Bonzi Buddy style, using an LLM to fake intelligence, push ads/manipulate users, and deflect accountability.