alt Hacker NewsCompletely agree here. Stop anthropomorphizing these tools. Just remove the extra language. Don't say please or thank you. Just ask for the desired outcome.
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Okay great, that's EASILY operatinalizable. Set up -say- 100 replications of the same question sequence (say to build a program) against some cheap model like qwen. One half of the set can be with please and thank you, and the other half without. You can vibe code it even. I'd be curious to see your results!
Indeed. It reminds me of Lewis’ That Hideous Strength in a way. If we take the severed head post-brain-death and pump it with blood and oxygen and feed it impulses so that the mouth moves to form the words we tell it, is the person living again? No, it’s just a head, speaking the words it’s been given.
I don’t see why you can’t use politeness. The thing is a mimic, you “treat” it badly and it mimics how a human might respond.
It’s fun to play with, as long as you’re fully cognizant that IT IS NOT A HUMAN
The places where solutions are discussed in a way that is best long term solution may well exist in a language subspace with politeness, calmness and thoughtfulness. Getting the model to those areas of linguistic space is useful; as is preserving my own habits of kind and thoughtful speech.