5 ms·

I really don’t think they’re the same thing. Email or letter, the words are yours while an LLM output isn’t.

• unyttigfjelltol 1y ago
  Which words, exactly, are "yours"? Working with an LLM is like having a copywriter 24/7, who will steer you toward whatever voice and style you want. Candidly, I'm getting the sense the issue here is some junior varsity level LLM skill.
  • johnnyanmac 1y ago
    LLM's have hit the mainstream some 3 years ago. 4 at best. None of us are making the team
• pyman 1y ago
  Initially, it had the same effect on people until they got used to it. In the near future, whether the text is yours or not won't matter. What will matter is the message or idea you're communicating. Just like today, it doesn't matter if the code is yours, only the product you're shipping and problem it's solving.
  • aspenmayer 1y ago
    Code is either fit for a given purpose or not. Communicating with a LLM instead of directly with the desired recipient may be considered fit for purpose for the receiving party, but it’s not for the LLM user to say what the goals of the writer is, nor is it for the LLM user to say what the goals of the writer ought to be. LLMs for communication are inherently unfit for purpose for anything beyond basic yes/no and basic autocomplete. Otherwise I’m not even interacting with a human in the loop except before they hit send, which doesn’t inspire confidence.
  • majormajor 1y ago
    Similar-looking effects are not the "same" effect. "Change always triggers backlash" does not imply "all backlash is unwarranted." > What will matter is the message or idea you're communicating. Just like today, it doesn't matter if the code is yours, only the product you're shipping and problem it's solving. But like the article explains about why it's rude: the less thought you put into it, the less chance the message is well communicated. The less thought you put into the code you ship, the less chance it will solve the problem reliably and consistently. You aren't replying to "don't use LLM tools" you're replying to "don't just trust and forward their slop blindly."
  • jaredcwhite 1y ago
    Doesn't matter today? What are you even talking about? It completely matters if the code you write is yours. The only people saying otherwise have fallen prey to the cult of slop.
    • lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
      Why does it matter where the code came from if it is correct?
      • jaredcwhite 1y ago
        Why does it matter where the paint came from if it looks pretty? Why does it matter where the legal claims came from if a judge accepts them? Why does it matter where the sound waves came from if it sounds catchy? Why does it matter? Why does anything matter? Sorry, I normally love debating epistemology but not here on Hacker News. :)
        • lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
          I understand the points about aesthetics but not law; the judge is there to interpret legal arguments and a lawyer who presents an argument with false premises, like a fabricated case, is being irresponsible. It is very similar with coding, except the judge is a PM. It does not seem to matter where the code nor the legal argument came from. What matters is that they are coherent.
          • johnnyanmac 1y ago
            >It does not seem to matter where the code nor the legal argument came from. You haven't read enough incoherent laws, I see. https://www.sevenslegal.com/criminal-attorney/strange-state-laws-illegal-california/587/#los-angeles https://www.sevenslegal.com/criminal-attorney/strange-state-... I'm sure you can make a coherent argument for "It is illegal to cry on the witness stand", but not a reasonable one for actual humans. You're in a formal setting being asked to recall potentially traumatic incidents. No decent person is going to punish an emotional reaction to such actions. Then there are laws simply made to serve corporate interests (the "zoot suit", for instance within that article. Jaywalking is another famous one). There's a reason an AI Judge is practically a tired trope in the cyberpunk genre. We don't want robots controlling human behavior.
  • threatofrain 1y ago
    I think just looking at information transfer misses the picture. What's going to happen is that my Siri is going to talk to your Cortana, and that our digital secretaries will either think we're fit to meet or we're not. Like real secretaries do. You largely won't know such conversations are happening.
• moomoo11 1y ago
  The prompt is theirs.
  • Tadpole9181 1y ago
    Then just send me the prompt.
    • lucyjojo 1y ago
      as long as there are people and HR out there screeching "unprofessional", why take the risk? writing mails/messages used to take me a long time. now i have a "make it professional" llm window, let it do its magic and edit out the most egregious stuff. it does 80-90% of the job. that said, sometimes it fails spectacularly, so i just write by hand. so.. many... hours... saved.
• j45 1y ago
  Some do put their words into the LLM and clean it up. And it stays much closer to how they are writing.
  • deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
• drweevil 1y ago
  That is indeed the crux of it. If you write me an inane email, it’s still you, and it tells me something about you. If you send me the output of some AI, have I learned anything? Has anything been communicated? I simply can’t know. It reminds me a bit of the classic philosophical thought experiment "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Hence the waste of time the author alludes to. The only comparison to email that makes any sense in this case are the senseless chain mails people used to forward endlessly. They have that same quality.