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ChatGPT spends 'tens of millions of dollars' on people saying 'please' and 'thank you', but Sam Altman says it's worth it (www.techradar.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 63 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Respecting your tools is a pretty fundamental thing to learn. Whatever that respect looks like for one tool or another.

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  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago*

    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.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    This absolute loon is asking permission from his tools

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    You are confusing consent with respect. Respect can be being afraid to put your fingers where they might get cut even after using a machine for 30 years. The moment you lose that fear and start doing whatever you want with the machine is when the troubles start. Respect can also be oiling a tool that needs to be for better longevity instead of leaving them full of rust at the bottom of the toolbox.

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  • [+] -9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    but dont anthropomorphize your tools. And it's odd when someone does.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago

    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.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    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.

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