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by ahtihn 24 days ago
Copy/pasting a question to LLM and pasting back the output isn't an attempt ar being helpful. It's the equivalent of a lmgtfy link.
2 comments

Not at all.

A lmgtfy link can be useful, even if rude.

It's teaching someone to fish.

Sharing an LLM output is simultaneously pretentious and unhelpful. To the OP's point, some might not consider it rude, but I'd rather someone be rude and helpful, rather than pretentious and unhelpful.

tl;dr -- No, it's much, much worse than an lmgtfy link

Maybe 15 years ago it was helpful. Google is so ubiquitous that lmgtfy has gotten even more passive aggressive as time’s gone on.
It's always been passive-aggressive.

But, if done properly (e.g. vetting that the top link is actually useful, after basically using the same words in the query that you were being asked), it's a genuine reminder that google exists, can be useful, and should often be consulted before you bother someone else.

It's a teaching moment.

Prompting AI and regurgitating the slop is more akin to googling and cutting and pasting the answer. Instead of making the statement "you can do better next time" it's pretending you are an oracle with supreme super-secret knowledge.

I suppose if it fools the querent, it's all good. But, for example, if I ask you a question because I want your opinion, and I receive AI slop in return, I have just been informed that you don't even value your own opinion.

If I really asked a stupid enough question to merit lmgtfy snark, I'd appreciate the snark. If you're not even confident enough in your own opinion to snark at me, you've just taught me something, but it's probably not a lesson that will do you any long-term good.

But the point OP is making is that it's entirely possible that the person doing this _does_ see it as them being as helpful as possible. That doesn't mean it doesn't suck, or that it isn't annoying, though. I dunno, just seems like a coin toss to me: was this backed by good intentions or not? Without other "evidence", assuming that it was well-meaning but misguided feels better for _both_ of us (at least in my experience).
Having good intentions doesn't give a free pass to be obnoxious.
Sure but that goes both ways in a conversation.
>Having good intentions doesn't give a free pass to be obnoxious.

>Sure but that goes both ways in a conversation.

In the situation being discussed, is it even a conversation if one party is not even actively engaging with the other person?

Also, respect is earned not given. If you don't respect me enough to put time into communicating in your own words, you can punch sand because I'm not reading your AI slop.

I had a colleague I really enjoyed talking to. Until all the AI hype and them getting into that bandwagon. Now whenever I ask something I get a huge markdown response with unaligned ascii table or being told to ask <llm name here> instead (with much enthusiasm). I am sure they are not doing it with bad intentions or ignoring me. That said I still can’t help but find it cold though. I would rather prefer if they just ghosted my messages
Good intentions don’t excuse bad behavior, and shouldn’t oblige one to silently accept it.
No, but they obligate you to be kind in your response despite your annoyance. The other person was trying to help, but failed. Keep that in mind if you feel the need to correct them.
Hence:

> If you encounter a slop grenade, share this page

Culture is cultured, it isn't the wilds, and requires pruning.

This is the sort of thing that only someone on the spectrum would consider doing in a professional setting, and they will end up getting coached by HR.
Oh, the irony.