Minor Annoyances (Vol 2)

[wordsfromlee]

3 hours ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Nah, it's for work, I'll allow it. Who gives a shit?

If people have to resort to using AI to write a basic work email then we’re fucked. 

[Chest Rockwell]

Maybe I've just not seen what we are talking about here. But the only times I've seen people use it for work emails are when they are presenting a complex problem and proposed solution for approval or discussion. If the AI rewrite can help them be succinct and help me understand what it is they actually want from me then great. I don't need it to be personal and reflect their personality. 

[SuperBacon]

I applied for a job yesterday that said something along the lines of "we don't mind if you use AI to tidy up your grammar, spelling etc" and I didn't as I don't tend to use it personally, but I'm not sure it's OK. I dunno.

[wordsfromlee]

A couple of days ago my wife saw someone in her office ask ChatGTP “write an email asking the person to do their work faster, but in a kind tone”. 
 

There’s a guy I work with who uses it for every written thing he has to do. He came bragging to me the other week because he’s written a reply to an email without using AI. It’s making people thicker. 

[DavidB6937]

28 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Maybe I've just not seen what we are talking about here. But the only times I've seen people use it for work emails are when they are presenting a complex problem and proposed solution for approval or discussion. If the AI rewrite can help them be succinct and help me understand what it is they actually want from me then great. I don't need it to be personal and reflect their personality. 

I think the one that particularly got to me this time was one that was encouraging collaboration in the team, and that everyone's individual skills are so important but teamwork is essential and we're all bringing our own strengths to the table etc.

Think it just felt a little hypocritical to be saying all that and then shoving an email through something like that. It was very hard for me to take seriously. 

[Chest Rockwell]

Yeah I think that's fair enough . Whenever anyone uses it for something that should be personal by function then it is quite jarring. I haven't seen much of it, but I saw someone use it for their heartfelt leaving the company message and I did clown on that. 

But for something that's 'all business' I don't think I would really bat an eyelid.

Edited July 15 by Chest Rockwell

[HarmonicGenerator]

The worst ones are the allegedly sustainable companies using it for basic things, directly contributing to the environmental damage and water wastage they're supposed to be actively avoiding.

[hallicks]

4 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

Me.

1) I think it's lazy and unnecessary unless you have quite significant communication issues for whatever reason - and I know these people don't.

2) It removes any individuality/personality etc. Even with work, I honestly believe everyone's strengths are what they bring to the table and who they are. And I hate the fact everything's getting filtered through the same shit AI lens. Whether it's emails or marketing or whatever else.

If you're writing an email to a team about how something's so important etc etc and yet you couldn't be arsed to even put your own words together then why am I meant to take that seriously?

I genuinely find it exhausting that task after task we're losing who we are as people and suddenly becoming this copy and paste world where everything looks/sounds the same.

We had the company-wide “here’s how AI is amazing and how it can be amazing for you!” meeting recently. As far as I can tell, they envisage the following uses:

1) Use it to read & write emails!
2) Use it for coding! (But don’t forget to check it works)! 
3) Use it to summarise meetings you stopped paying attention to!
4) Use it for EVERYTHING!

I may use it for 3) as I did stop paying attention to this particular meeting.

But using it to summarise emails, and to write emails? Nah. There’s no boilerplate/busywork emails in my role. I feel like being able to digest information from an email, and reply in a concise, correct manner is part of the job description. (And any job done well). Once you start subcontracting this part of your cerebellum out, you’re fucked, professionally and mentally.

The higher ups of every organisation are desperate to replace you with some kind of automation or AI, given the amount of money they’re spending on it. If you’re sitting there AI’ing the fuck out of every email you send, you’re only reinforcing their belief that you’re expendable. 

[Tamura]

Spending half my life looking at tiny, grainy images trying to see a particular item, then being told after I've definitely selected all the correct images that I've done it wrong and need to try again.

[BomberPat]

every time my laptop does an automatic Windows update, something doesn't work the next time I turn it on. 

This morning, I had to rebuild all of my Mail Merges that had broken in weird ways since yesterday (and me having changed nothing, and nobody else having accessed them), and I was getting no audio output whatsoever. In the past, the update has removed software from my laptop or rolled back driver updates for stuff, and I'm left to figure out what's randomly disappeared. Whenever I've reported it to Microsoft tech support, they always insist that there's no way that a Windows update could or would do those things, and I just want to say, "yeah, but it fucking did, didn't it?" - you forced an update, and after the update shit was broken, nothing else changed. 

Today I tried everything to get audio working again and couldn't get anywhere, so had an infuriating chat with tech support where they again insisted it had nothing to do with the Windows Update, took over my screen, did everything I had already done, and then insisted that the problem was that I was running my audio through a TV speaker, even though I'm absolutely not doing that.

Eventually got it working but only through one speaker, which I remember being a problem after a previous update, but fuck knows what I did to fix it then. Eventually resorted to just uninstalling my sound card drivers and restarting everything, and it works now.

 

So I guess the minor annoyances are both unskippable updates, tech companies forcing you to install or use certain software and features whether you want to or not, and useless tech support. And wasting the first two hours of my morning having to fix this stuff. Haven't even started on the Mail Merge yet.

[DavidB6937]

Funnily enough came in to rant about the fact my laptop updated last night, worked for about 5 mins and then crashed and I had to end up doing some recovery thing.

Obviously happens on the day I have a bazillion things to get done. Fucks sake.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

3 hours ago, Tamura said:

Spending half my life looking at tiny, grainy images trying to see a particular item, then being told after I've definitely selected all the correct images that I've done it wrong and need to try again.

Could be worse

[Statto]

5 hours ago, Tamura said:

Spending half my life looking at tiny, grainy images trying to see a particular item, then being told after I've definitely selected all the correct images that I've done it wrong and need to try again.

This could be BS, but i was told once that those kind of captcha tests don't actually assess if you pick the right images - at least not as the primary test.

What they try to assess is if you undertake the task like a human would - if you do it suspiciously quickly, too logically in terms of pattern, if you move your cursor in dead straight lines (if using a mouse) or things like that,  it'll still suspect you're a bot and throw you another one, regardless of if you get the right answers or not.

[Tamura]

1 hour ago, Statto said:

This could be BS, but i was told once

That's the main source of frustration with captchas, nobody really knows. You get those "select all squares with motorcycles" with an image divided into sixtreen squares, yet nobody knows whether you're supposed to include the squares with a little bit of wheel or not. Between captchas that don't work properly and Facebook regularly trying to impose two-factor authentication by stealth, I probably only get to log in on my desktop PC every other day.

Edited July 17 by Tamura

[Gus Mears]

Everything having 'maxxing' stapled onto the end. 

Fuck off.