HN

Comments (209)

• Menu

  torben-friis
  >But even when I talk to people, they forward my questions to AI and send me the AI’s answer.This is the killer issue.It's so profoundly saddenning, it feels like watching an adult being asked a question and calling mom to answer for them. There is something deeply disturbing in it that makes me feel I'm not talking to a self sufficient entity.
• Menu

  p2detar
  > I worked as a developer at a company. I asked the business owner a question about a business task. He sent me a ChatGPT screenshot with the answer. I replied that it had nothing to do with my question and everything there was wrong. A minute later he sent me another ChatGPT screenshot. He didn’t even read the AI’s answer.That's just rude and borderline psychotic behavior.It's still a bit better at my workplace but irritating nonetheless - my boss would "research" a feature and prep notes in our wiki with some gemini chatbot exchanges attached. This is a of course no specification, but it's supposed to be a good base point to start working on the feature. Gemini already chose the coding libraries and concepts, so to the outsider it just seems like all that's needed is to code that into the product. Of course, it's not that simple and it mostly gets in the way rather than help. But now questions arise why is the feature not ready yet, when "the plan" is already there and so obvious.
• Menu

  wateralien
  One of the most amazing things happened during the day long power cut in 2025 in Spain and Portugal... eventually the cell towers went down and everyone just went to the parks and socialised. Connected with friends, strangers. Everyone was so in the moment because there was nowhere else to be, nothing else to distract them. People would pick up their phone and realise there was nothing there for them and put it back down and continue chatting. People were present in a way I've never seen in these places before. It was pretty magical.
• Menu

  xen_relay
  A bit off topic, but I am currently travelling through Europe by train. It is such a boon to just be outside everyday and meet locals and fellow travellers. Highly recommend.
• Menu

  thunfischtoast
  AI makes it apparent that the only value some people bring to the table is that they have access to information that you do not. If now they fold that one advantage by just delegating everything to AI (which is in the same position as you informationwise), they will remove themselves from the worker pool soon.
• Menu

  tfrancisl
  > I worked as a developer at a company. I asked the business owner a question about a business task. He sent me a ChatGPT screenshot with the answer.Something similar to this happened in a "public" chat space at my company, and, despite the fact that we are leaning into LLMs and agentic workflows quite a bit, the responses were generally "I aint reading all that" and "hey, dude, thats kinda unprofessional."We should be shaming people who attempt to outsource all of their thinking to chatbots or agents. I think it would be effective.
• jsnell
  Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48230104
• Havoc
  Have encountered this too - we really need new social norms around this.Bombarding others with pages of slop that took you 10 seconds to generate (and not even read) yet take minutes to untangle for the recipient is obviously downright rude....unfortunately every office has a small number of people that are dumb as rocks and don't recognise this - in fact think they're helping
• layer8
  I feel that if there was a startup that would tackle automating copy&paste, they could take over the world. ;)
• Menu

  mrweasel
  For something like customer service, I can understand why an AI would be deploy, not that I think it should, but why are so many running things like Reddit bots?A few bots here and there for experimentation, sure, but as someone else pointed out, almost half of everything online is now AI generated. To some extend if it's not worth spending a persons time producing, I don't think whatever it is that you generated needs to exist.
• perching_aix
  It helps when one is not surrounded by tactless buffoons.I had this happen to me a few times, kindly produced my own LLM output screenshots in response, and the issue resolved itself. I was lucky: I got the kind who - mistakenly - thought they were being helpful. They weren't, got the hint, and buggered off with this. I wasn't really asking them questions though per se, so maybe a bit of a different situation.Maybe worth trying if you have not. Obviously, if you have a hard-on against LLMs this won't be easy though.Though I will say, some colleagues of mine are visibly absolutely terrible in using LLMs, so with them it does make sense to prompt on their behalf. Definitely wouldn't lead with the LLM output like this though, not the least because it's always a mountain of prose.
• Menu

  hypfer
  AI has "just" greatly accelerated/amplified dysfunction that was already there previously.Even before AI, you often weren't truly talking with other real people on the web. Even if it was an actual human that responded, online tribalism led to erasure of said human-ness.So from that standpoint, being exhausted by not talking to real humans might be good or at least necessary.
• Menu

  darkstarsys
  What happens to humanity when AIs are better at being human than most humans? (More patient, more empathetic even if it's simulated empathy, more knowledgeable)
• CmdSheppard
  I totally understand! Started getting AI fatigue for a few months now. I find myself constantly questioning if content I interact with is AI generated or not.
• Menu

  jillesvangurp
  This is just the modern equivalent of "just google it". Which at the time was a rude but effective way of telling people to get off their ass and figure it out themselves instead of being lazy and expecting others to solve their issues.You wanting to talk to someone means you are desiring to occupy their time and attention. Depending on the person, it helps if you actually have a good case for this and if you can communicate that well. Also, have some empathy for the other side being busy or otherwise not that motivated to drop everything and engage with you.The problem here isn't necessarily people using AI but communication skills. Many developers are not particularly strong at those; or reading between the lines.
• Menu

  pelagicAustral
  I'm not tired to talking to AI because I specifically instructed my agents to channel Alec Baldwin in Glengary Glen Ross, so i constantly reminded that coffee is for closers only.
• Menu

  EarthIsHome
  Nearly half of online articles are now AI-generated. [0][0]: https://graphite.io/five-percent/ai-now-writes-as-many-onlin...
• jiaosdjf
  You're absolutely right! This isn't just tiring <em-dash> it's _insulting_.
• kh_hk
  In Neal Stephenson's fall or dodge in hell there's a timeline where the internet is so flooded by fake AI generated news that characters have their own agent both filtering info and maintaining their fake social presence.The book in particular is of a debatable quality but I keep going back to those introductory chapters as prophetic the more we go into this.
• maciejzj
  I've recently been connecting some machines to a new switch and my colleague has been monitoring web logs at the same time using Claude. He send me a Claude-generated observation that the machines that I was able to put my hands on simultaneously must be in different buildings due to high pings. Surreal experience.
• Menu

  bloqs
  When you work in STEM fields you tend to interact with people with higher non verbal reasoning skills (often called Performance IQ) who generally have lower verbal IQs (not always). These people are definitively less articulate and cannot see the linguistic inconsistencies and inhuman demeanor of LLM outputs. Much in the same way that non creative people cannot tell why some AI art is unappealing, they can't easily comprehend the value of the human dimension of art. Similarly, people with poor non-verbal/performance reasoning skills cannot understand the difference between AI produced code and human produced code.
• Menu

  t_macc
  I'm tired of talking ABOUT AI.
• pprotas
  A year ago (or so) I had a colleague whose messages were all obviously AI-generated. I told them that it felt weird that they were sending me AI answers in Slack and code reviews, and they stopped doing it.Not an interesting story, just wanted to share that the other party might not be aware of how this comes across on the people that have to read their AI messages.
• Menu

  hamburgererror
  Face reality my friend, Internet is now hostile to humans. Time to leave this place for good.
• elorant
  Give it a few years and the web will be AIs talking to other AIs ad infinitum
• jwxz
  In the video game Cyberpunk 2077, the "Net" is overrun by rouge AI and eventually humanity has to quarantine itself from them, ironically, using another AI.I wonder if a similar fate awaits us?
• zhiQ
  - you use AI-generated argument in a discussion. - your co-worker counters with AI-generated argument. - you re-counter with AI-generated rebuttal. - the co-worker counter the re-counter with another AI-generated… etc.Turtles all the way down.
• patates
  > But even when I talk to people, they forward my questions to AI and send me the AI’s answer.Those people obviously don't want to talk to you or not interested in the topic you're talking about or both.Find people who want to talk to you, and avoid spaces where this is less likely to happen.Funny thing is, when this happened to me, I asked AI to give me ideas (because I just couldn't find people to talk to) and the best idea it had was finding smaller/niche forums and real-world gatherings around me.At least nowadays, when you see the person talking in real world, it's fairly easy to tell human from android.
• ps
  Two months ago I responded to my nontechnical business partners asking me what do I expect from AI in the future couple of months or years - people will cherish and value in person talk and meeting other people much more and even this will hold true for minor share of human population and only until we augment human body to hide its permanent connection to AI.
• t1234s
  Try talking to grok its more entertaining.
• anon
  undefined
• Menu

  CachedaCodes
  I think using AI to help you write or rewrite something you want to convey is fine, the difference is using it as a replacement of thinking instead of a tool.The screenshots part is crazy.
• Menu

  lizknope
  I'm tired of talking to people telling them to stop talking to an AIAI generated slop has exploded across reddit. Last year I would see about 1 obvious AI generated post and report it. Today I've already reported 5 posts and it is 7am here.The posts are some technical topic but there isn't even really a question in the post and then it ends with "thoughts about this?" and people try to clarify with the OP what the question is.I reply to them to stop wasting their time because it is a bot. Sometimes there are 20 comments and nothing from the OP bot. Sometimes the OP bot says "Interesting, thanks" but never any real followup question.We had this discussion 3 weeks ago "AI Slop is Killing Online Communities"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48053203
• pjmlp
  Me too, which is why I do my best to keep KPIs, and do everything else as always.
• rejigtian
  why? They are useful
• u_fucking_dork
  On the other hand, I recently had a problem with my grocery order from Sam’s Club (the onions were smashed) and had to call to get it hopefully addressed. Talked to an LLM for 30 seconds after 0 wait and it was resolved. No accent I could barely understand, no potato microphone, no being put on hold for 5 minutes in the middle while they do whatever.Just I’m an AI, I might fuck this up, what do you need, is this about your most recent order? Yes, my onions got smashed. Ok do you want a refund? Yes. The end.
• Neil44
  I hate getting AI generated emails from people. They probably haven't even read or understood the slop they're sending me, the chances of them understanding and contextualizing what I reply are slim, I might as well reply with AI slop. What's the point of any of this.Maybe I can increase the weights on slop in my spam filter.
• sunkeeh
  Now people are seeing why in-person matters.
• senfiaj
  Sounds like a nightmare.
• sshine
  I recently had someone send me a PCAP file with a network package dump suggesting that the error is on my side.I threw it to Claude and a minute later had a "look at packet 131 and 136, it's on their side."Yeah, it is exhausting to read verbose slop. But you're the author.I used to be extremely verbose, and AI has helped me appreciate brevity because now I'm being exposed to it.I would love to be without the "Top 5 Kubernetes commands" slop images LinkedIn feeds me.
• Menu

  alex_x
  thinking becomes a commodity
• datakan
  I feel the same as the article author. Worse, every Diary/Journaling app is now including AI, so the place where original thoughts are supposed to be written for posterity is now also AI generated slop. I've canceled subscriptions because of it.
• throwatdem12311
  I work with a handful of offshore devs and it’s basically like just talking to Claude now. What is even the point of having offshore Claude middle men when I can just orchestrate remote agents directly without giving a crap about timezones?The meatsack agents do the same thing anyway - I give them requirments and they build it exactly as specified with zero question, and in the laziest get-it-done method possible with no thought about complexity, architecture, technical debt, etc…. If there is a mistake in the spec they don’t question it, they just build the mistake. If they aren’t going to use their brains WHY SHOULDNT I replace them with Claude?Managers send me AI generated specs and AI generated slop mock-ups. They answer questions about how the product should work by giving me AI generated responses they didn’t even spot-check for correctness. AI generated bug reports with hallucinated STR. Offshores send me slop they not only didn’t read, they didn’t even run once because it’s OBVIOUSLY broken. Absolute madness.None of this sh*t is actually helpful. It’s work SLOP. It’s not more productive. It’s a productivity sinkhole.I hate all this garbage and the total rotting out of people’s minds and abilities it has inflicted upon humanity.Nothing has made me hate billionaires more than AI. It helped me realize that I could never be a successful multinational corpo man because I’m not a morally bankrupt POS and I look at people much different now because of this realization. There is no way one could get to the place that people like Altman, Amodei, Nadella, Ellison, Bezos, Zuck, Musk, etc…are without being giant pieces of rotten excrement.
• cortic
  I was actually thinking of how tired i was talking to real people and how refreshing AI was to talk something through with.Most conversations with people, that center around something complicated or emotional are difficult on many levels. I have to deal with humans limited amount of patience and ego eccentric responses that can hide the actual response and require me to untie the persons emotional state diplomatically before i can get to the point.Just having an entity i can throw concepts at with limitless patience and almost no ego, its really refreshing. The only issue I'm frustrated with is the inevitable Enshittification of these LLMs leading to advertising push or "a response was not generated" popping up whenever something too political or controversial is generated.I don't consider the massive inflow of IA content in social media as a LLM problem as this is just the same shills that were always on these platforms using AI to increase the quality and quantity of their output, its problems we should have dealt with before AI.
• Menu

  outime
  >I’m tired of talking to AI.>I want to talk to real people.Good luck with that while on the internet - that's only going to get worse. The bright side is that this may make all of us touch grass more often.
• everlier
  The company I work at tries to solve it right now, not promoting, just want to share.Slop is no fun to deal with, so we have a thesis that slop should be left for agents to read and human-to-human communication should happen outside of passing empty fluffy docs to one another. To realise that, we have a workspace with group chats where multiple agents and humans can work together and agents can engage with humans for additional information when needed. The challenge is, of course, to find the right level of autonomy for the agents and let the agent learn and follow user's workflows well enough to be useful.
• titaniumrain
  too much whining with non-AI believers
• Menu

  sibidharan
  AI made writing cheap, but it's a human thing to validate, research and respond! It's human slop! Not AI slop!
• chaosprint
  Using AI to learn objective things is acceptable. However, as long as it's combined with your own experience, because AI can't possibly understand your entire world, any subjective answers will be disgusting, disastrous, obsequious, and boring.
• anon
  undefined
• Menu

  eliotthbyrnes
  Hot take - who still actually uses the actual chat features for general conversation in the dev community?
• Invictus0
  Get a grip! If you want to talk to a human then pickup the phone or go meet them in person
• msu2
  [dead]
• daniel3303
  [flagged]
• nezucc
  [dead]
• tommy0103
  [dead]
• Menu

  weatherlite
  What's so great about talking to real people?
• Menu

  untitled-now
  Talking to AI can be useful , but depends on how one uses it :)