@kotaro @jeffjarvis @emilymbender
Not sure where the example featured a passive verb, but on the other hand I'm pretty sure that "the program assembled" is third person, not first -- and I agree that this is preferrable to first person here.
@aaribaud @kotaro @emilymbender
Yes, in this context "the machine assembled" could be seen as either third or first person.
@jeffjarvis @aaribaud @kotaro no, that's third person, unambiguously.
@emilymbender @jeffjarvis @kotaro I *think* I get where the confusion may arise: the "first person" here is semantic, not grammatical, as in "my old self isn't able to run that fast"; grammatically third person, semantically first.
Professor of linguistics here (with a PhD in syntax). Yes, people sometimes use third person expressions to describe themselves. But that doesn't make them first person expressions. The whole point of that article is that machines shouldn't be programmed to use first person expressions (among other anthropomorphizing choices).
@emilymbender @aaribaud @jeffjarvis @kotaro yes! So much yes!
No programmed system should ever self refer as "I"
@pjakobs @jeffjarvis @emilymbender @aaribaud @kotaro It’s gone now, but for a period of years, if you chose “Play Next” in the iOS Music app it would respond “We’ll play this next”. Dafuq? No you won’t. I will. Who is this we and how did you get in here?
@goodthinking @pjakobs @jeffjarvis @emilymbender @aaribaud @kotaro@mastodon.online
Windows still does stuff like that. the "We're getting things ready for you" and such. Seriously it annoyed me for a long time though I didn't have a specific reason beyond "what is this forced brand intimacy I do not have nor want"
@mybarkingdogs @goodthinking @pjakobs @jeffjarvis @emilymbender @kotaro This one I tend to read less as "we, your computer, are..." and more as "We, MS, are..." (not that I *like* it any better, mind you).
@aaribaud @mybarkingdogs @pjakobs @jeffjarvis @emilymbender @kotaro Automated voice attendants are where this business started. The most cynical use of technology outside the atomic bomb, imo.
@goodthinking @aaribaud @mybarkingdogs @jeffjarvis @emilymbender @kotaro "I am looking for the next available agent..." that's so vile.
Btw, the other day, I pointed out in ChatGPT that the answer given was nonsense and plain wrong.
The response was "I did some more research and I have do agree that my answer was incomplete" - no you bloody box of wires, you did not do "more research"
@pjakobs @goodthinking @aaribaud @jeffjarvis @emilymbender @kotaro@mastodon.online SERIOUSLY
@goodthinking @pjakobs @jeffjarvis @emilymbender @aaribaud @kotaro@mastodon.online
I wish that at the very least there was a very clear opt-out for "forced teaming"/"intimacy"/"your friend" features in *anything." Because I *hate* them, they feel creepy and emotionally manipulative and just... ugh
@mybarkingdogs @pjakobs @jeffjarvis @emilymbender @aaribaud @kotaro There are ways that UI/UX can work in a friendly way without any of the creepery. Witness the calckey on-board design. Fun, but in a way that consistently points back at what YOU are doing, not what “they” are doing.
@mybarkingdogs @pjakobs @jeffjarvis @emilymbender @aaribaud @kotaro Clippy. Never forget.