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Setting aside the uncanny valley, my understanding is that people like seeing people not because they look like people but because it conveys effort and investm
by abxyz 2y ago
Setting aside the uncanny valley, my understanding is that people like seeing people not because they look like people but because it conveys effort and investment on the part of another human being. We want to feel like we're worth someone else's time, in every context.
We don't like to interact with people just because that's the only way we can interact but because humans are human. AI avatars are the exact opposite: a statement of disinterest. If you don't care enough about my business to be on a sales call with me, why would I bother speaking to an AI avatar you send in your place? What's a thank you message without a human being actually taking the time to record it?
AI avatars seem a lot like crypto: they're a neat technology solving the wrong problem. The "inefficiency" of humans interacting with humans is the fundamental component of communication. I guess it's a lot like LLMs: instead of producing less content that is more valuable / thoughtful per unit, we're producing a lot more content that is much less valuable / thoughtful per unit. AI avatars will create more vacuous communication, not enable our communication to be more thoughtful.
Maybe human behavior will change because of this, maybe the next generation that grows up interacting with AI avatars won't have this same feeling that speaking to an actual human means something.
- gigatree 2y agoThat’s why I disagree with the idea that salespeople will be the first to be replaced by AI. If anything, they’ll be the last to be replaced.
- LikelyClueless 2y agoI think you just made me realize that I don't like interacting with salespeople because their behavior falls into some kind of uncanny valley.
- gigatree 2y agoMaybe they’re actually AI avatars! Or just bad salespeople
- cryptopian 2y agoWe're definitely hard wired to recognise the difference between people being friendly to foster a good relationship and people being friendly because they've good ulterior motives
- powvans 2y agoSpot on. There's something instinctual about this. My kids (13,10,8) all love making art. When I show them AI tools that they could use to generate art or riff on existing art, they are actively opposed. They tell me that AI art is not real art, that AI tools for doing this sort of thing are gross, and they want nothing to do with it. As a technologist I think "omg this is so cool" and it has been genuinely surprising to see how they actively rebuff it.
- tempodox 2y agoBe glad your kids have such healthy instincts. I keep being amazed how kids see through the BS that adults fall for.
- whimsicalism 2y agoits because they are exposed to the internet and left-leaning culture from their schools, i highly doubt that is their first exposure reaction.
- miltonlost 2y agoHave you been on the internet lately? The manosphere is everywhere; right-wing discourse is the norm. Left-leaning culture in schools? Such as what left-leaning cultures? That you think there is bias in education kind of shows your own biases/POV
- whimsicalism 2y agoI am 'very online'. I have seen a huge rise in right-wing content on social issues, but also a huge rise in very explicitly leftist and anti-AI content in a way that did not previously exist - especially on economic/industry issues. That public education has a left-wing slant in many jurisdictions seems difficult to deny, but I did go to a particulsrly leftwing school district. I do not think you really know anything about my POV and likely the inferences you would make based on my statement are wrong.
- 2y ago
- jmathai 2y agoI want to interact with a computer like it's a computer. Clicking, dragging and cursing. Who wants to interact with a computer as if it were a human?
- lenerdenator 2y agoPeople with exponentially more money than sense who sit in echo chambers.