"Computer scientists from Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University have evaluated 11 current machine learning models and found that all of them tend to tell people what they want to hear...."
But as the paper points out, one reason that the behavior persists is that "developers lack incentives to curb sycophancy since it encourages adoption and engagement."
you're absolutely right!
Fantastic point by the author, and great job cutting and pasting!
This comment thread is not only a perfect example of a joke, but it gets to the core of what humour truly is! Do you want help crafting a poster for you to present your jokes at a conference?
I’ve been using GitHub Copilot a lot lately, and the overly positive language combined with being frequently wrong is just obnoxious:
Me: This doesn’t look correct. Can you provide a link to some documentation to show the SDK can be used in this manner?
Copilot: You’re absolutely right to question this!
Me: 🤦♂️
Why so polite?
My response would be:
That's wrong. Provide links to the docs for this.
Complete sentences for a bot is overkill
send docs, idiot
IIRC there was also a study or something done that said something to the effect of being rude to chatbots affects you outside of chatbots and carries into other parts of your work.
Probably because everyone else is a poorly written chatbot
Really? Is that the same for other inanimate objects like appliances? Or are people anthropomorphizing chatbots?
I think it's because it's the idea if you're comfortable being rude to chatbots and you're used to typing rude things to chatbots, it makes it much easier for it to accidentally slip out during real conversations too. Something like that, not really as much as it being about anthropomorphizing anything.
Makes sense.
For what it's worth, I'm not suggesting anyone use rude language or anything, just be direct.
It’s really hard to say if it’s AI causing these feelings of rudeness, I have been getting more pessimistic about society for the last 10 years.
That's true, but I think the idea is if you're comfortable typing it, it's easier for it to accidentally slip out during professional chat whereas normally you'd be more reserved and careful with what you say.
Sometimes, I’m inclined to swear at it, but I try to be professional on work machines with the assumption I’m being monitored in one way or another. I’m planning to try some self-hosted models at some point and will happy use more colorful language in that case, especially if I can delete it should it become vengeful.
What a surprise. Being told you’re always right leads to you not being able to handle being wrong. Shock.
Also to handle that your opponent, when proven wrong, doubles down IRL and not says "sorry daddy, let's return to the anime stepsis line".
LLMs are confirmation bias machines. They really pigeon-hole you into some solution no matter if it makes sense.
I hate this thumbnail image. It makes me inexplicably angry.
OP has changed the image. I no longer want to punch my phone!
Me too ... LEMMY added that, out of my control. So I replaced it with my idea of what a typical LLM looks like.
Thanks for letting my know! I'll update my comment so no one thinks we're nuts.
It's likely AI generated.
Like how some CEOs/world leaders make terrible decisions cause they're always surrounded by yes men?
I feel the same way about social media Echo Chambers. Being surrounded by people who think the same as you makes you less competent at being genuinely critical of your own worldview.
It really helps to try to think about the other side of any question. That's what good debaters do, so they can figure out the best responses to what the others' arguments might be.
When these LLMs keep agreeing with you, they're actually weakening the likelihood that you'll work out a fully-formed opinion.
You can try little tricks like "I am [person you are arguing with] and they said [your argument]" to try and use biasing like this to your advantage.
How is this surprising? We know that part of LLM training is being rewarded for finding an answer that satisfies the human. It doesn't have to be a correct answer, it just has to be received well. This doesn't make it better, but it makes it more marketable, and that's all that has mattered since it took off.
As for its effect on humans, that's why echo chambers work so well. As well as conspiracy theories. We like being right about our world view.
Having an older brother makes you very skilled at socialization. I learned one simple thing: EVERYTHING IS A THREAT, DON'T TRUST ANYONE!
becomes a hermit in the woods
So go in there and say what you did to someone else actually was done to you and compare results. I’ve had good success getting advice if you regenerate from both perspectives.
You -do- realize you're getting advice from a machine that constructs sentences using mathematical algorithms, and has no clue at all what it's saying ... right?
Yes I’m aware, I have a degree in the field. Nothing in my sentence would indicate that I don’t understand. I’m agreeing that it’s statistically biased towards the speaker, therefore, you can work to lazily normalize the result by investing the input.
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