4 ms·

Every interaction I have with AI where I previously would’ve interacted with a person is worse. Whether that’s something mundane like scheduling an appointment,

by cdrnsf 5mo ago

Every interaction I have with AI where I previously would’ve interacted with a person is worse. Whether that’s something mundane like scheduling an appointment, use at a doctor’s office, chat support. I imagine it’s cheaper for the company deploying it, but it’s all bad. It lines up with companies being more concerned with investors than actual users and customers though.

Xeoncross 5mo ago
Ah, but it's cheaper. Replace "AI" with "auto parts" or "store food" and you see the same thing. Replace "AI" with "police force" or "contractors" and it's the same thing. Why is everyone and everything getting worse? A sort of "Prisoner's dilemma" I suppose: no one wants to take a stand and lose their business edge just for principles sake.
- roxolotl 5mo ago
  This is why a political solution is the only way forward. I’m optimistic that people are finally fed up but who knows.
  - oliwarner 5mo ago
    What sort of political solution is there? What intervention could roll this back?
    - dragontamer 5mo ago
      Taxes. If these companies can afford $trillions, then the government can collect some dues that can fund retraining programs or whatever.
      - bdangubic 5mo ago
        yea, historically in the United States we have been successfully solving all our problems by collecting more taxes. nothing more efficient than giving money to our Government
        dragontamer 5mo ago
        What was our tax rate that got rid of our WW2 debt? Taxes definitely solved that problem. And it even brought about the golden age of post WW2 US economy. The correct taxes in the correct areas serve as an incentive structure to help encourage businesses and individuals to make good decisions. At least, that's what we did 80 years ago.
        bdangubic 5mo ago
        Taxes would not make top-10 reasons for post WWII “golden age.” The US Government is at present (without any chances of this being fixed ever again) about the least efficient entity that exists on the Planet Earth and giving it more money will not solve any problem. It will be used though but one of the two political parties to win election(s) and kill any tax law that was previously put in place
        dragontamer 5mo ago
        That's not what I asked I asked what was the tax rate that got rid of our WW2 debt. The golden age thing is an aside. Just a reminder that you can't call 1950s America weak on the world stage. > The US Government is at present (without any chances of this being fixed ever again) about the least efficient entity that exists on the Planet Earth and giving it more money will not solve any problem Taxes directly solve the debt and deficit problem. Period. Let's start with things one step at a time. Now that we've had 40 years of trying to drown the budget in a bathtub (and only ballooning our debt), we should seriously start trying something different.
        _DeadFred_ 5mo ago
        Reminder that for the last 40 years one half of government, the Republican party, has had as their policy 'starve the beast' by allowing rampant spending and cutting taxes in order to make this very claim 'look at how inefficiently we spent your money (when our policy was to create this very situation). Look at all this debt (we intentionally piled on in order to cripple government).'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast
      - oliwarner 5mo ago
        Taxes on what? Corps are famously good at burying profits under expenditure and mergers. And what are you retraining to? We've long abandoned serious manufacturing and mining. Most people's job is the application of knowledge and communication and LLMs are coming for them all. From retail and call centres through to doctors and lawyers. We can't all retrain as plumbers, waiters and surgeons.
        dragontamer 5mo ago
        > Corps are famously good at burying profits under expenditure and mergers Cool. Let's start with taxing those, or any other place where they bury or hide from taxes. Thanks for the suggestion. We can also tax on the numbers of job losses vs capital expenditures. IE: if you spend a $Billion on stuff while firing tons of workers, you get taxed more. ------- As far as retraining: easy solution. Whatever people want to retrain to. The details will work themselves out. The important tidbit is to have large scale mass retraining if this really is the future. It's not like the government forced me into my current job. I'm more than capable of choosing a new field myself. And if YOU can't see the possibilities, them you don't have to take the retraining program. But from my perspective, there's plenty of work needed in the USA to improve our country. Plenty of problems to solve.
    - goalieca 5mo ago
      Datacenters.
    - archagon 5mo ago
      What intervention could <roll back the industrial revolution>? On the technical side, perhaps none. But countless people in the labor movement spilled blood for their rights and dignity. Maybe something similar will be needed here, too.
- readthenotes1 5mo ago
  [flagged]
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
readthenotes1 5mo ago
I had a car dealership, used an AI agent to set up an appointment. It was so efficient. It's the only reason I asked if it were a real human. It was not. Far better than the norm
- cdrnsf 5mo ago
  They’re ok at routing you to a human when you pester them repeatedly. My parents are in their 60s and loathe dealing with it.
KoolKat23 5mo ago
If you're competitors are doing it and your clients keep returning there's no downside. So long as it achieves something and saves money, great. I do feel from my own anecdotal experience, they're getting better, it's hit and miss but still some terrible implementations out there.
tstrimple 5mo ago
Mine hasn't. I've been subjected to the lowest common denominator of employable humanity because of cost savings measures from companies. I'd far rather interact with an "LLM" powered support agent than a human who cannot even comprehend the language and is just following a scripted prompt. The LLM has more agency at this point than the human support personnel.
hodgesrm 5mo ago
A lot of enshittification is driven by market consolidation. I really don't want my economic interactions to be with massive chains in a race to the bottom. The cure is to enable new competitors to offer alternatives. It starts with anti-trust but also includes reducing regulations and barriers to market entry. And maybe not so many billion-dollar, me-too AI investments and more focus on things like building delivering healthcare cheaply.
8note 5mo ago
chat support can be great, if the chat is knowledgeable and fast. not sure if it really needs to have the power to act too, but if it can escalate with a really good description of my problem, and then the human support can take action, thats just fine by me
omgwtfbyobbq 5mo ago
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9_d6-HFpfqE https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9_d6-HFpfqE

by cdrnsf 5mo ago

Xeoncross 5mo ago

Ah, but it's cheaper. Replace "AI" with "auto parts" or "store food" and you see the same thing. Replace "AI" with "police force" or "contractors" and it's the same thing. Why is everyone and everything getting worse? A sort of "Prisoner's dilemma" I suppose: no one wants to take a stand and lose their business edge just for principles sake.

roxolotl 5mo ago
This is why a political solution is the only way forward. I’m optimistic that people are finally fed up but who knows.
- oliwarner 5mo ago
  What sort of political solution is there? What intervention could roll this back?
  - dragontamer 5mo ago
    Taxes. If these companies can afford $trillions, then the government can collect some dues that can fund retraining programs or whatever.
    - bdangubic 5mo ago
      yea, historically in the United States we have been successfully solving all our problems by collecting more taxes. nothing more efficient than giving money to our Government
      - dragontamer 5mo ago
        What was our tax rate that got rid of our WW2 debt? Taxes definitely solved that problem. And it even brought about the golden age of post WW2 US economy. The correct taxes in the correct areas serve as an incentive structure to help encourage businesses and individuals to make good decisions. At least, that's what we did 80 years ago.
        bdangubic 5mo ago
        Taxes would not make top-10 reasons for post WWII “golden age.” The US Government is at present (without any chances of this being fixed ever again) about the least efficient entity that exists on the Planet Earth and giving it more money will not solve any problem. It will be used though but one of the two political parties to win election(s) and kill any tax law that was previously put in place
        dragontamer 5mo ago
        That's not what I asked I asked what was the tax rate that got rid of our WW2 debt. The golden age thing is an aside. Just a reminder that you can't call 1950s America weak on the world stage. > The US Government is at present (without any chances of this being fixed ever again) about the least efficient entity that exists on the Planet Earth and giving it more money will not solve any problem Taxes directly solve the debt and deficit problem. Period. Let's start with things one step at a time. Now that we've had 40 years of trying to drown the budget in a bathtub (and only ballooning our debt), we should seriously start trying something different.
        _DeadFred_ 5mo ago
        Reminder that for the last 40 years one half of government, the Republican party, has had as their policy 'starve the beast' by allowing rampant spending and cutting taxes in order to make this very claim 'look at how inefficiently we spent your money (when our policy was to create this very situation). Look at all this debt (we intentionally piled on in order to cripple government).'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast
    - oliwarner 5mo ago
      Taxes on what? Corps are famously good at burying profits under expenditure and mergers. And what are you retraining to? We've long abandoned serious manufacturing and mining. Most people's job is the application of knowledge and communication and LLMs are coming for them all. From retail and call centres through to doctors and lawyers. We can't all retrain as plumbers, waiters and surgeons.
      - dragontamer 5mo ago
        > Corps are famously good at burying profits under expenditure and mergers Cool. Let's start with taxing those, or any other place where they bury or hide from taxes. Thanks for the suggestion. We can also tax on the numbers of job losses vs capital expenditures. IE: if you spend a $Billion on stuff while firing tons of workers, you get taxed more. ------- As far as retraining: easy solution. Whatever people want to retrain to. The details will work themselves out. The important tidbit is to have large scale mass retraining if this really is the future. It's not like the government forced me into my current job. I'm more than capable of choosing a new field myself. And if YOU can't see the possibilities, them you don't have to take the retraining program. But from my perspective, there's plenty of work needed in the USA to improve our country. Plenty of problems to solve.
  - goalieca 5mo ago
    Datacenters.
  - archagon 5mo ago
    What intervention could <roll back the industrial revolution>? On the technical side, perhaps none. But countless people in the labor movement spilled blood for their rights and dignity. Maybe something similar will be needed here, too.
readthenotes1 5mo ago
[flagged]
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]

readthenotes1 5mo ago

I had a car dealership, used an AI agent to set up an appointment. It was so efficient. It's the only reason I asked if it were a real human. It was not. Far better than the norm

cdrnsf 5mo ago
They’re ok at routing you to a human when you pester them repeatedly. My parents are in their 60s and loathe dealing with it.

KoolKat23 5mo ago

If you're competitors are doing it and your clients keep returning there's no downside. So long as it achieves something and saves money, great. I do feel from my own anecdotal experience, they're getting better, it's hit and miss but still some terrible implementations out there.

tstrimple 5mo ago

Mine hasn't. I've been subjected to the lowest common denominator of employable humanity because of cost savings measures from companies. I'd far rather interact with an "LLM" powered support agent than a human who cannot even comprehend the language and is just following a scripted prompt. The LLM has more agency at this point than the human support personnel.

hodgesrm 5mo ago

A lot of enshittification is driven by market consolidation. I really don't want my economic interactions to be with massive chains in a race to the bottom. The cure is to enable new competitors to offer alternatives. It starts with anti-trust but also includes reducing regulations and barriers to market entry. And maybe not so many billion-dollar, me-too AI investments and more focus on things like building delivering healthcare cheaply.

8note 5mo ago

chat support can be great, if the chat is knowledgeable and fast. not sure if it really needs to have the power to act too, but if it can escalate with a really good description of my problem, and then the human support can take action, thats just fine by me

omgwtfbyobbq 5mo ago

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9_d6-HFpfqE https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9_d6-HFpfqE