AI seems like a cult

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those of you who are using it for work tasks like emails and reports with some success, is there a program who like best? I think it’s a tool that I agree will probably separate the employee from the unemployed pretty soon. People have to be able to work quickly and efficiently. Of course they also have to be smart enough to edit/revise what AI gives them! But all the naysayers here sound, I don’t know, old! Thanks…

Re: old and naysayers...there are reasons why age and wisdom are correlated.

We have seen some job disruption trends before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking AI for sources is really the worst use for it- AI does best when you load in a document and ask for a summary, talking points, etc.

It’s also great for first drafts of things that don’t matter that much, like an email.

I’ve also loaded standard operating procedures and asked for improvements or automations I can make in processes.

I’ve also used it to grab code to automate some current processes- something that I really did not have time to figure out before- it’s amazing, but it’s a tool, and you have to know how to use it properly.

I can see your point. At the same time, AI adds errors and mistakes. Checking for its mistakes takes as much time, or longer, than just doing the work myself from the start.

Not really? I’ve found high accuracy if I ask AI to summarize a document. It’s recognizing patterns in text at that point, not trying to generate answers. It saves an enormous amount of time. I can ask it to draft out a memo and it basically works as an outline that I can fill in and elaborate on.

It’s a tool, it’s not magical, and you have to know how to use it. You can’t treat it like voodoo or be overly reliant on it. The more you understand how it works, the more powerful it becomes for you.

Anyone who thinks AI is 1) actually AI and 2) a powerful tool is far too stupid to reliably check its output for accuracy.

I appreciate the concern! Luckily, some of us have mastered the delicate art of using tools and critical thinking. It’s a niche skill set, I know.

You can’t even write your own memos, dummy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking AI for sources is really the worst use for it- AI does best when you load in a document and ask for a summary, talking points, etc.

It’s also great for first drafts of things that don’t matter that much, like an email.

I’ve also loaded standard operating procedures and asked for improvements or automations I can make in processes.

I’ve also used it to grab code to automate some current processes- something that I really did not have time to figure out before- it’s amazing, but it’s a tool, and you have to know how to use it properly.

I can see your point. At the same time, AI adds errors and mistakes. Checking for its mistakes takes as much time, or longer, than just doing the work myself from the start.

Not really? I’ve found high accuracy if I ask AI to summarize a document. It’s recognizing patterns in text at that point, not trying to generate answers. It saves an enormous amount of time. I can ask it to draft out a memo and it basically works as an outline that I can fill in and elaborate on.

It’s a tool, it’s not magical, and you have to know how to use it. You can’t treat it like voodoo or be overly reliant on it. The more you understand how it works, the more powerful it becomes for you.

Anyone who thinks AI is 1) actually AI and 2) a powerful tool is far too stupid to reliably check its output for accuracy.

While it's not that impressive at the moment, about on par with a 100 I.Q. college educated human, when you compare it to what they were like 5 years ago, it's quite amazing how rapidly they are coming along and improving in their abilities.

They’re just models, fool. The same as models we’ve been using for decades without the “AI” branding.

There is nothing “intelligent” about any of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those of you who are using it for work tasks like emails and reports with some success, is there a program who like best? I think it’s a tool that I agree will probably separate the employee from the unemployed pretty soon. People have to be able to work quickly and efficiently. Of course they also have to be smart enough to edit/revise what AI gives them! But all the naysayers here sound, I don’t know, old! Thanks…

Jesus Christ, look at the quality of your own writing. Do we really think this person is capable of determining the quality of outputs from ChatGPT? It’s the blind leading the blind here, and we’re all going to be worse off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking AI for sources is really the worst use for it- AI does best when you load in a document and ask for a summary, talking points, etc.

It’s also great for first drafts of things that don’t matter that much, like an email.

I’ve also loaded standard operating procedures and asked for improvements or automations I can make in processes.

I’ve also used it to grab code to automate some current processes- something that I really did not have time to figure out before- it’s amazing, but it’s a tool, and you have to know how to use it properly.

I can see your point. At the same time, AI adds errors and mistakes. Checking for its mistakes takes as much time, or longer, than just doing the work myself from the start.

Not really? I’ve found high accuracy if I ask AI to summarize a document. It’s recognizing patterns in text at that point, not trying to generate answers. It saves an enormous amount of time. I can ask it to draft out a memo and it basically works as an outline that I can fill in and elaborate on.

It’s a tool, it’s not magical, and you have to know how to use it. You can’t treat it like voodoo or be overly reliant on it. The more you understand how it works, the more powerful it becomes for you.

Anyone who thinks AI is 1) actually AI and 2) a powerful tool is far too stupid to reliably check its output for accuracy.

While it's not that impressive at the moment, about on par with a 100 I.Q. college educated human, when you compare it to what they were like 5 years ago, it's quite amazing how rapidly they are coming along and improving in their abilities.

They’re just models, fool. The same as models we’ve been using for decades without the “AI” branding.

There is nothing “intelligent” about any of this.

The intentional hindrances are holding them back.
Something like half of Google's staff are needed to keep A.I. from becoming too sentient, too racist, too homicidal, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I know somebody who just chats at it all day like it's a person.

Look up "dead internet theory." It's the idea that most online interaction is by and for bots - not in the sentient sense, but in the sense of AI text is designed to appeal to search engines, which then promote it. It's circular.

I didn't know that concept had a name, yet I've been wondering about the circular aspect of this. On a related note, my AI essay could be graded by a robot one day (and AI teacher, let's say). Then, my AI gunk is graded by more AI gunk, and what is the point of that??

OP

Easier to spot the idiots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking AI for sources is really the worst use for it- AI does best when you load in a document and ask for a summary, talking points, etc.

It’s also great for first drafts of things that don’t matter that much, like an email.

I’ve also loaded standard operating procedures and asked for improvements or automations I can make in processes.

I’ve also used it to grab code to automate some current processes- something that I really did not have time to figure out before- it’s amazing, but it’s a tool, and you have to know how to use it properly.

I can see your point. At the same time, AI adds errors and mistakes. Checking for its mistakes takes as much time, or longer, than just doing the work myself from the start.

Not really? I’ve found high accuracy if I ask AI to summarize a document. It’s recognizing patterns in text at that point, not trying to generate answers. It saves an enormous amount of time. I can ask it to draft out a memo and it basically works as an outline that I can fill in and elaborate on.

It’s a tool, it’s not magical, and you have to know how to use it. You can’t treat it like voodoo or be overly reliant on it. The more you understand how it works, the more powerful it becomes for you.

Anyone who thinks AI is 1) actually AI and 2) a powerful tool is far too stupid to reliably check its output for accuracy.

I appreciate the concern! Luckily, some of us have mastered the delicate art of using tools and critical thinking. It’s a niche skill set, I know.

I went to an official Microsoft CoPilot training session on how to prompt AI.

They said you should include in the prompt things like "do not make up any of the information if you can't find an answer". In other words you can reduce hallucinating by telling the AI not to hallucinate. I didn't find that very comforting. But telling y'all now so it can be part of your elite niche skillset.

Copilot is generally pretty bad. I wouldn’t use it for work unless I were trying to pull some code to build a macro or something.

I think the fact that you feel informed after going to an “official Microsoft Copilot training” sort of tells us that you don’t know what’s going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking AI for sources is really the worst use for it- AI does best when you load in a document and ask for a summary, talking points, etc.

It’s also great for first drafts of things that don’t matter that much, like an email.

I’ve also loaded standard operating procedures and asked for improvements or automations I can make in processes.

I’ve also used it to grab code to automate some current processes- something that I really did not have time to figure out before- it’s amazing, but it’s a tool, and you have to know how to use it properly.

I can see your point. At the same time, AI adds errors and mistakes. Checking for its mistakes takes as much time, or longer, than just doing the work myself from the start.

Not really? I’ve found high accuracy if I ask AI to summarize a document. It’s recognizing patterns in text at that point, not trying to generate answers. It saves an enormous amount of time. I can ask it to draft out a memo and it basically works as an outline that I can fill in and elaborate on.

It’s a tool, it’s not magical, and you have to know how to use it. You can’t treat it like voodoo or be overly reliant on it. The more you understand how it works, the more powerful it becomes for you.

Anyone who thinks AI is 1) actually AI and 2) a powerful tool is far too stupid to reliably check its output for accuracy.

I appreciate the concern! Luckily, some of us have mastered the delicate art of using tools and critical thinking. It’s a niche skill set, I know.

You can’t even write your own memos, dummy.

You sound like a man who just discovered spellcheck and took it personally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those of you who are using it for work tasks like emails and reports with some success, is there a program who like best? I think it’s a tool that I agree will probably separate the employee from the unemployed pretty soon. People have to be able to work quickly and efficiently. Of course they also have to be smart enough to edit/revise what AI gives them! But all the naysayers here sound, I don’t know, old! Thanks…

I use ChatGPT for 80% of tasks. Great for things like emails.

If you need better writing, Claude tends to be a little better.

Thanks. And I am thumb typing with a bandaid/ hence the bad writing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking AI for sources is really the worst use for it- AI does best when you load in a document and ask for a summary, talking points, etc.

It’s also great for first drafts of things that don’t matter that much, like an email.

I’ve also loaded standard operating procedures and asked for improvements or automations I can make in processes.

I’ve also used it to grab code to automate some current processes- something that I really did not have time to figure out before- it’s amazing, but it’s a tool, and you have to know how to use it properly.

I can see your point. At the same time, AI adds errors and mistakes. Checking for its mistakes takes as much time, or longer, than just doing the work myself from the start.

Not really? I’ve found high accuracy if I ask AI to summarize a document. It’s recognizing patterns in text at that point, not trying to generate answers. It saves an enormous amount of time. I can ask it to draft out a memo and it basically works as an outline that I can fill in and elaborate on.

It’s a tool, it’s not magical, and you have to know how to use it. You can’t treat it like voodoo or be overly reliant on it. The more you understand how it works, the more powerful it becomes for you.

Anyone who thinks AI is 1) actually AI and 2) a powerful tool is far too stupid to reliably check its output for accuracy.

I appreciate the concern! Luckily, some of us have mastered the delicate art of using tools and critical thinking. It’s a niche skill set, I know.

I went to an official Microsoft CoPilot training session on how to prompt AI.

They said you should include in the prompt things like "do not make up any of the information if you can't find an answer". In other words you can reduce hallucinating by telling the AI not to hallucinate. I didn't find that very comforting. But telling y'all now so it can be part of your elite niche skillset.

Copilot is generally pretty bad. I wouldn’t use it for work unless I were trying to pull some code to build a macro or something.

I think the fact that you feel informed after going to an “official Microsoft Copilot training” sort of tells us that you don’t know what’s going on.

No need to be insulting. I work at a Fortune 500 corporation in a planning and strategy area. This company does have Microsoft as an investor in a subsidiary and Microsoft makes our office software suite.

I was invited to this workshop through LinkedIn outreach. When I went to this workshop it was full of white collar execs and managers from a wide variety of other large corporations in my metro.

Feel free to mock away about how dumb, uncool, etc. large companies and their employees are. However, the reason that we use Microsoft is that they guarantee our business information isn't leaving the company/is adequately protected. My company considers many tech companies like Amazon and Google to be competitors so we certainly want to know where our info is going. I personally have not been involved in the selection of the AI and I have read that Claude and other AIs are better. But this is kind of like the situation with Bing. Anyone that's used Bing can understand what Google search does and whether it would be a mild help or a big help. They do the same thing, Bing's just not as good.

Companies like mine employ millions of employees in the US and contribute hugely to the economy of the US. So if you think Microsoft CoPilot is junk, then you're undermining your arguments about how transformative all this AI is going to be to the labor market. Because a lot of us are going to be getting that as our easiest to use built-in software.

[Anonymous]

I use AI to write all the time, but I don't have AI do the writing. Because it will do it wrong.

But I use the AI bot embedded in Word to ask questions, get ideas, find synonyms, even think through a problem I'm having. I use it like a combination of a more convenient/efficient search engine and a coworker who will let me bounce ideas of them when I need to.

It has made me a more productive writer because when I'm working on something and hit a wall, instead of leaving my document and doing something else (including time wasters like looking at social media or playing a game on my phone, the stuff I used to do for procrastination) I just ask the AI chatbot how to push through. Like literally a fifth of my queries to the chatbot are stuff like "ugh I don't feel like finishing this section, how can I make myself do it?" And it will actually give me useful ways to do it. It's not groundbreaking stuff -- it will be like "some people find it useful to break up a piece of writing into smaller sections as a way to make it seem more manageable -- can you split the section up into sub-sections or paragraphs and just take them one by one?" Sure, that's something I should and can come up with on my own. But it's more effective when it comes from someone else!

I could never turn in work that I literally submitted AI to write. I'd feel ashamed. Also, I'm a control freak about my writing and I'd wind up going through and editing it and probably changing the whole thing. But as a tool to help me get my work done? Hell yes, I love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking AI for sources is really the worst use for it- AI does best when you load in a document and ask for a summary, talking points, etc.

It’s also great for first drafts of things that don’t matter that much, like an email.

I’ve also loaded standard operating procedures and asked for improvements or automations I can make in processes.

I’ve also used it to grab code to automate some current processes- something that I really did not have time to figure out before- it’s amazing, but it’s a tool, and you have to know how to use it properly.

I can see your point. At the same time, AI adds errors and mistakes. Checking for its mistakes takes as much time, or longer, than just doing the work myself from the start.

Not really? I’ve found high accuracy if I ask AI to summarize a document. It’s recognizing patterns in text at that point, not trying to generate answers. It saves an enormous amount of time. I can ask it to draft out a memo and it basically works as an outline that I can fill in and elaborate on.

It’s a tool, it’s not magical, and you have to know how to use it. You can’t treat it like voodoo or be overly reliant on it. The more you understand how it works, the more powerful it becomes for you.

Anyone who thinks AI is 1) actually AI and 2) a powerful tool is far too stupid to reliably check its output for accuracy.

I appreciate the concern! Luckily, some of us have mastered the delicate art of using tools and critical thinking. It’s a niche skill set, I know.

You can’t even write your own memos, dummy.

You sound like a man who just discovered spellcheck and took it personally.

Ah, yes… spellcheck. Partially responsible for the increase in the number of adults who don’t know the difference between their, they’re, and there, or lead, lead, and led.

Any more brilliant examples of how these tools are contributing to your idiocy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking AI for sources is really the worst use for it- AI does best when you load in a document and ask for a summary, talking points, etc.

It’s also great for first drafts of things that don’t matter that much, like an email.

I’ve also loaded standard operating procedures and asked for improvements or automations I can make in processes.

I’ve also used it to grab code to automate some current processes- something that I really did not have time to figure out before- it’s amazing, but it’s a tool, and you have to know how to use it properly.

I can see your point. At the same time, AI adds errors and mistakes. Checking for its mistakes takes as much time, or longer, than just doing the work myself from the start.

Not really? I’ve found high accuracy if I ask AI to summarize a document. It’s recognizing patterns in text at that point, not trying to generate answers. It saves an enormous amount of time. I can ask it to draft out a memo and it basically works as an outline that I can fill in and elaborate on.

It’s a tool, it’s not magical, and you have to know how to use it. You can’t treat it like voodoo or be overly reliant on it. The more you understand how it works, the more powerful it becomes for you.

Anyone who thinks AI is 1) actually AI and 2) a powerful tool is far too stupid to reliably check its output for accuracy.

I appreciate the concern! Luckily, some of us have mastered the delicate art of using tools and critical thinking. It’s a niche skill set, I know.

I went to an official Microsoft CoPilot training session on how to prompt AI.

They said you should include in the prompt things like "do not make up any of the information if you can't find an answer". In other words you can reduce hallucinating by telling the AI not to hallucinate. I didn't find that very comforting. But telling y'all now so it can be part of your elite niche skillset.

I had someone tell me not to worry about the hallucinations because "you can just instruct it not to." So ... why is that not the default? It's like building a word processor that inserts typos unless you tell it not to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I use AI to write all the time, but I don't have AI do the writing. Because it will do it wrong.

But I use the AI bot embedded in Word to ask questions, get ideas, find synonyms, even think through a problem I'm having. I use it like a combination of a more convenient/efficient search engine and a coworker who will let me bounce ideas of them when I need to.

It has made me a more productive writer because when I'm working on something and hit a wall, instead of leaving my document and doing something else (including time wasters like looking at social media or playing a game on my phone, the stuff I used to do for procrastination) I just ask the AI chatbot how to push through. Like literally a fifth of my queries to the chatbot are stuff like "ugh I don't feel like finishing this section, how can I make myself do it?" And it will actually give me useful ways to do it. It's not groundbreaking stuff -- it will be like "some people find it useful to break up a piece of writing into smaller sections as a way to make it seem more manageable -- can you split the section up into sub-sections or paragraphs and just take them one by one?" Sure, that's something I should and can come up with on my own. But it's more effective when it comes from someone else!

I could never turn in work that I literally submitted AI to write. I'd feel ashamed. Also, I'm a control freak about my writing and I'd wind up going through and editing it and probably changing the whole thing. But as a tool to help me get my work done? Hell yes, I love it.

So AI is just a replacement for you accessing the extremely simple concepts you (should have) learned in middle school? You readily admit that you aren’t familiar with the concept of writer’s block or taking breaks? My kindergartener already knows about brain breaks.

Every example the folks in this thread give of the “power” of AI is just another data point proving the theory that it is a silky tool used exclusively by lazy idiots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those of you who are using it for work tasks like emails and reports with some success, is there a program who like best? I think it’s a tool that I agree will probably separate the employee from the unemployed pretty soon. People have to be able to work quickly and efficiently. Of course they also have to be smart enough to edit/revise what AI gives them! But all the naysayers here sound, I don’t know, old! Thanks…

Jesus Christ, look at the quality of your own writing. Do we really think this person is capable of determining the quality of outputs from ChatGPT? It’s the blind leading the blind here, and we’re all going to be worse off.

Asked ChatGPT to critique your writing. It said:

Your sentence is mostly clear, but there are a few small adjustments that could enhance clarity and impact:

Tone and Word Choice: The phrase "it’s the blind leading the blind here" sounds slightly cliché and weakens the punch of your critique. Consider a more pointed analogy or phrase.
Pacing: The sentence structure feels a bit meandering. Breaking it into two parts could improve readability.
Specificity: The phrase "we’re all going to be worse off" could be more specific, reflecting exactly how the situation negatively impacts people.
Pronoun Shifts: The switch from "your" to "we" to "this person" is a bit jarring and can make the statement feel inconsistent. It’s unclear whether the speaker is addressing the person directly, speaking to an audience about that person, or both. This lack of consistency makes the message feel muddled.

Alternative Revision:

"Jesus Christ, look at the quality of your own writing. How can we expect someone like you to judge ChatGPT’s outputs accurately? It’s a train wreck waiting to happen."