4 ms·

Ever since Google experimented LLM in Gmail it bothers me alot. I firmly believe every word and the way you put them together portrays who you are. Using LLM fo

by 3371 8mo ago

Ever since Google experimented LLM in Gmail it bothers me alot. I firmly believe every word and the way you put them together portrays who you are. Using LLM for direct communication is harmful to human connections.

nullsanity 8mo ago
This comment has made me glad for LLM in Gmail. If someone is going to over analyze my every word because he firmly believes it portrays who I am, I'd appreciate the layer obfuscation between me and this creepazoid.
- flyinglizard 8mo ago
  Assuming you did not use an LLM to craft your comment, I’d say “case in point”.
- johnfn 8mo ago
  If your words don’t portray who you are, what does?
  - ako 8mo ago
    People make mistakes in the words they use, I often think “oops, I shouldn’t have said it like that”.
    - rcMgD2BwE72F 8mo ago
      If said once, yes.
    - dingnuts 8mo ago
      [dead]
  - jaggederest 8mo ago
    Actions? I generally judge people by what they do, not what they say - though of course I have to admit that saying things does fall under "doing something", if it's impactful.
    - atoav 8mo ago
      The truth is that both words and actions communicate something, especially in combination. And sometimes words are the action.
- 3371 8mo ago
  That's exactly the point. In your case, you don't want to show who you are, connection or not does not matter.
mettamage 8mo ago
It can be. It can also not be. A friend of mine had a PITA boss. Thanks to ChatGPT he salvaged his relationship with him even though he hated working with him. He went on to something else but his stress levels went way down. All this is to say: I agree with you if the human connection is in good faith. If it isn’t then LLMs are helpful sometimes.
- lofties 8mo ago
  It sounds like that relationship was not supposed to be salvaged to begin with. ChatGPT perhaps prolonged your friend's suffering, who ended up moving on in the end. Perhaps unnecessarily delayed.
  - borroka 8mo ago
    My knee-jerk reaction is that outsourcing thinking and writing to an LLM is a defeat of massive proportions, a loss of authenticity in an increasingly less authentic world. On the other hand, before LLMs came along, didn't we ask a friend or colleague for their opinion on an email we were about to write to our boss about an important professional or personal matter? I have been asked several times to give advice on the content and tone of emails or messages that some of my friends were about to send. On some occasions, I have written emails on their behalf. Is it really any different to ask an LLM instead of me? Do I have a better understanding of the situation, the tone, the words, or the content to use?
    - pm215 8mo ago
      I think there are a couple of differences here: Firstly, when you ask a friend or colleague you're asking a favour that you know will take them some time and effort. So you save it for the important stuff, and the rest of the time you keep putting in the effort yourself. With an LLM it's much easier to lean on the assistance more frequently. Secondly, I think when a friend is giving advice the responses are more likely to be advice, i.e. more often generalities like "you should emphasize this bit of your resume more strongly" or point fixes to grammar errors, partly because that's less effort and partly because "let me just rewrite this whole thing the way I would have written it" can come across as a bit rude if it wasn't explicitly asked for. Obviously you can prompt the LLM to only provide critique at that level, but it's also really easy to just let it do a lot more of the work. But if you know you're prone to getting into conflicts in email, an LLM powered filter on outgoing email that flagged up "hey, you're probably going to regret sending that" mails before they went out the door seems like it might be a helpful tool.
liveoneggs 8mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPC_(meme) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPC_(meme)
gjadi 8mo ago
IMHO, the real problem is that they create an even greater dissonance between online life and IRL. Think about dating apps, pictures could be fake, and now words exchanged can be fake too. You thought you were arguing with a gentle and smart colleague by chat and mails, too bad, when you meet then at a conference or at a restaurant you find them very unpleasant.

by 3371 8mo ago

nullsanity 8mo ago

This comment has made me glad for LLM in Gmail. If someone is going to over analyze my every word because he firmly believes it portrays who I am, I'd appreciate the layer obfuscation between me and this creepazoid.

flyinglizard 8mo ago
Assuming you did not use an LLM to craft your comment, I’d say “case in point”.
johnfn 8mo ago
If your words don’t portray who you are, what does?
- ako 8mo ago
  People make mistakes in the words they use, I often think “oops, I shouldn’t have said it like that”.
  - rcMgD2BwE72F 8mo ago
    If said once, yes.
  - dingnuts 8mo ago
    [dead]
- jaggederest 8mo ago
  Actions? I generally judge people by what they do, not what they say - though of course I have to admit that saying things does fall under "doing something", if it's impactful.
  - atoav 8mo ago
    The truth is that both words and actions communicate something, especially in combination. And sometimes words are the action.
3371 8mo ago
That's exactly the point. In your case, you don't want to show who you are, connection or not does not matter.

mettamage 8mo ago

It can be. It can also not be. A friend of mine had a PITA boss. Thanks to ChatGPT he salvaged his relationship with him even though he hated working with him. He went on to something else but his stress levels went way down. All this is to say: I agree with you if the human connection is in good faith. If it isn’t then LLMs are helpful sometimes.

lofties 8mo ago
It sounds like that relationship was not supposed to be salvaged to begin with. ChatGPT perhaps prolonged your friend's suffering, who ended up moving on in the end. Perhaps unnecessarily delayed.
- borroka 8mo ago
  My knee-jerk reaction is that outsourcing thinking and writing to an LLM is a defeat of massive proportions, a loss of authenticity in an increasingly less authentic world. On the other hand, before LLMs came along, didn't we ask a friend or colleague for their opinion on an email we were about to write to our boss about an important professional or personal matter? I have been asked several times to give advice on the content and tone of emails or messages that some of my friends were about to send. On some occasions, I have written emails on their behalf. Is it really any different to ask an LLM instead of me? Do I have a better understanding of the situation, the tone, the words, or the content to use?
  - pm215 8mo ago
    I think there are a couple of differences here: Firstly, when you ask a friend or colleague you're asking a favour that you know will take them some time and effort. So you save it for the important stuff, and the rest of the time you keep putting in the effort yourself. With an LLM it's much easier to lean on the assistance more frequently. Secondly, I think when a friend is giving advice the responses are more likely to be advice, i.e. more often generalities like "you should emphasize this bit of your resume more strongly" or point fixes to grammar errors, partly because that's less effort and partly because "let me just rewrite this whole thing the way I would have written it" can come across as a bit rude if it wasn't explicitly asked for. Obviously you can prompt the LLM to only provide critique at that level, but it's also really easy to just let it do a lot more of the work. But if you know you're prone to getting into conflicts in email, an LLM powered filter on outgoing email that flagged up "hey, you're probably going to regret sending that" mails before they went out the door seems like it might be a helpful tool.

liveoneggs 8mo ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPC_(meme) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPC_(meme)

gjadi 8mo ago

IMHO, the real problem is that they create an even greater dissonance between online life and IRL. Think about dating apps, pictures could be fake, and now words exchanged can be fake too. You thought you were arguing with a gentle and smart colleague by chat and mails, too bad, when you meet then at a conference or at a restaurant you find them very unpleasant.