ChatGPT spends 'tens of millions of dollars' on people saying 'please' and 'thank you', but Sam Altman says it's worth it
ChatGPT spends 'tens of millions of dollars' on people saying 'please' and 'thank you', but Sam Altman says it's worth it
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I am happy to hear that people say please and thank you. When Siri/Alexa came out, we taught the kids to always say please and thank you when addressing them. If you can be polite to an AI, then you can be polite to a human.
Yes!
its a hammer, do you teach the kids to thank their tools?
I understand teaching the children respect and how to behave, but AI and Siri/Alexa are just tools. They don't need to be anthropomorphizing ai, IMO that is dangerous on a humanity level scale.
I thank my car when it alerts me that I left the lights on or my keys in the ignition. I'm not anthropomorphizing my car, I'm practicing appreciation for the benefits my tools provide.
you thank your car?
whatever floats your boat but I think we both know you are just being contrarian now
I'd argue that showing disdain, aggression, and disrespect in communication with AI/LLM things is more likely to be dangerous as one is conditioning themselves to be disdainful, aggressive, and disrespectful when communicating with the same methods used to communicate with other people. Our brains do a great job at association, so, it's basically just training oneself to be an asshole.
why are you arguing that at me? I just argued that its not a human, AI is a tool and should be treated as such. If my tool sucks, I will tell it so and quit using it. If my tool is great, I will use it to the best of my ability and respect its functionality.
everyone else here is making scarecrow arguments because I just don't think it needs to be anthropomorphized. The link speaks about "tens of millions of dollars" wasted on computing please and thank you
that is fucking stupid behavior
Exactly!
I'm a parent, and I set a good example by being incredibly respectful to people, whether it's the cashier at the grocery store, their teacher at school, or a police officer. I show the same respect because I'm talking to a person.
When I'm talking to a machine, I'm direct without any respect because the goal is to clearly indicate intent. "Alexa play <song>" or "Hey Google, what's <query>?" They're tools, and there is zero value in being polite to a machine, it just adds more chances for the machine to misinterpret me.
Kids are capable of understanding that you act differently in different situations. They're super respectful to their teachers, they don't bother with that w/ their peers, and us as parents are somewhere in between. I don't want my kids to associate AI/LLMs more with their teachers than their pencils. They're tools, and their purpose is to be used efficiently.
Kondo literally has you thanking items for their service as a way to uncouple and declutter. "Humans will pack bond with anything" is a trope for a reason.
It's about your humanity, not the machine's
The purpose for Marie Kondo is to alleviate the guilt for getting rid of a thing you liked at one point. If you thank it, you're essentially convincing yourself that it has fulfilled its purpose and so there's no guilt in discarding it.
LLMs don't fit into that. What purpose could thanking it possibly have other than anthropomorphizing it? If you're trying to break your attachment to an LLM, sure, thank it for the time you spent with it so you can let it go. But thanking it for providing an answer is just silly.
Anthropomorphic Fallacy
Respecting your tools is a pretty fundamental thing to learn. Whatever that respect looks like for one tool or another.
Absolutely. But respect looks a lot different for each type of tool. For example:
- use it for its intended purpose - e.g. don't use a hammer to break up rocks, that'll just break your hammer
- maintain it - lube mechanical parts, clean anything that interacts with dirt, etc
- replace when worn
- keep tools organized
Thanking my hammer isn't showing respect, putting it away when I'm done and using it only for intended uses does.
For an LLM, showing it respect is keeping queries direct so it doesn't spend unnecessary resources trying to understand what you want. Thanking it does absolutely nothing.
I agree. That's why i personnally stopped using queries just to thank it but i don't know what the absolute best practice is when it comes to LLms.
Agree… and this should extend to resources as well. Not respecting nature has led us to this path. If anthropomorphizing the tools and resources helps then so be it. Humans are dumb as nut and storytelling, storybooks , and anthropomorphizing and such is the most effective way to make em understand.
but dont anthropomorphize your tools. And it's odd when someone does.
People don't usually interact with a hammer by talking to it. They interact by holding it, placing it, hammering with it. Respect for a hammer (or similar tool) would be based around those kinds of actions.
Whereas people do interact with a chatbot by talking to it. So then respect for a chatbot would be built around what is said.
People can show respect for a hammer, a house, a dinner prepared by their spouse, their spouse, a chatbot, etc.. but respect for each of those things will look a bit different.
Hey, whatever heuristic works for helping people show and feel respect for their environment and the things in it is good in my book. If you're capable of respecting others in your space without needing to be polite to your inanimate tools, then good on you. Not everyone is like that and if it helps someone feel peace with their surroundings to imagine everything around them has some kind of soul or feelings worthy of consideration, then I'll take that, too.
Of course, there are limits to everything and if a tool irreparably breaks, hopefully someone is able to discard it accordingly. Pathological hoarding of useless objects is a thing, too, after all.
But the interaction is different. I have a simple example, would you be upset if you see some people beat up a chair? Probably not, but if you see people beat up something that moves, talks and behaves like a person or an animal you might get upset. Both are just things, but the interaction is still different. So we should teach our kids to be kind in interactions with live line things so that they behave properly when interacting with people. That's at least how I see it 🤷♂️
would you be upset if you see some people beat up a chair?
I do. Breaking something just because you're upset is counter-productive and just creates waste, so it frustrates me.
I also think being polite to an LLM is stupid and wasteful. Just be direct about what you need a response to and move on. Don't be rude (that's also counter-productive), just be direct. For example, "What's the capital of Bulgaria?" instead of, "If you could be so kind, could you look up the capital of Bulgaria for me please? Thank you!" Using a tool efficiently is a way of showing it some level of respect.
Tools are tools. Use and maintain them properly, and then move on to the next task.
I see people beat up their things all the time without getting upset
I don't really care when someone smashes the door closed of their car
or smashes their keyboard in frustration or tosses a pen that doesn't work right
Perhaps you should feel concern for that person, because they're resorting to violence to cope with their feelings of frustration. We've all done it and in my own experience, I don't think I've ever come back to my senses feeling satisfaction that I had lost control. I usually feel some shame for the destruction I caused.
I don't think it's about anthropomorphizing the tool, it's about expressing appreciation for the tool. Showing appreciation to a wrench may being as simple as making sure that you clean, oil, and properly put it away when your done using it. The tool is not a conscious entity, but the mindset of appreciation will make you more likely to properly care for the object resulting it being useful to you for longer.
Yes. I teach them to respect their tools and the objects they use. So you just treat everything as disposable?
Lol.
Lmao even.