Why allow anthropomorphism in LLM or any computer output, for any age group?

A simple regulation would be that all LLM output must:

  * Explicitly identify itself as a computer

  * Identify the human or human org controlling it
    (e.g., 'This is Claude v8.90 software made by Anthropic.')

  * Not attempt to mimic humans except for entertainment
    purposes, and then clearly labeled (e.g., 'This is not
    a human. It is a computer pretending to be human for
    entertainment purposes.').

What violation of those regulations would be for other than defrauding and/or manipulationg people? They are easily complied with and I don't see those regulations impacting the economic productivity gains projected for LLM use.

▲ dpark 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This sounds like the kind of well-intentioned thinking that results in products that are no safer practically but are far more unpleasant to interact with. This is like the pop up every time I start my car that reminds me I should not play with the screen while I’m driving.

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mmooss 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Would you give examples of possible negative results, especially those that outweigh the benefits? Do you have ideas on how to do it better?

> like the pop up every time I start my car that reminds me I should not play with the screen while I’m driving.

If something like that is the worst result, there is little downside.

	▲	victorbjorklund a minute ago \| parent \| next [-]
		What does it even mean ”do not mimick humans”? How are the AI supposed to reply if I ask ”do you think this genserver will be a bottleneck in the sync process and how can we fix it?” The correct answer would sound just like a human unless you either make it do shallow annoying stuff like add redundant ”as an LLM I can’t think or recommend but the answer with the highest probability is …”
	▲	dpark 24 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The downside is it’s annoying as hell. The upside seems limited to a bureaucratic pat on the back for “doing something good”.

▲ marcus_holmes 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Isn't this about children attributing human characteristics onto the LLM, rather than the LLM itself pretending to be human?

And we do this with lots of things that are not human for children (e.g. Bluey and Peppa Pig). Do we need a "this is not a human" warning for them, too?

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estearum 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Do Bluey and Peppa Pig produce convincing human-like responses to virtually any human-generated input directed towards them?

If so, then uhh yeah we should definitely regulate that shit

	▲	marcus_holmes 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If not now, then soon, yes. I'll bet money there's a toy manufacturer somewhere working out how to hook a Bluey doll up to an LLM to make it responsive. I'm not completely clear on what we're afraid of here, though. We routinely project human-like characteristics onto non-human things for our children. We don't think this is harmful. Why are we worried about children projecting human characteristics onto an LLM?

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smcg 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

We probably do, considering how many seem to treat it as companionship or therapy.

▲ ndnichols 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Preach! Mustafa Suleyman had a great post on some of this last year: https://mustafa-suleyman.ai/seemingly-conscious-ai-is-coming

▲ pixl97 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because it makes the product mostly useless for all kinds of things?

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windexh8er 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Care to enlighten us? Because you seem to imply you want to have a conversation about your day every time you fire up a shell.

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4b11b4 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What world are you living in, I don't want to go there

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mmooss 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What things? Again, I don't see any but manipulation and fraud, but I certainly could be missing some.

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all2 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Role play, which is a huge consumer of tokens. You can glance at openrouter's usage stats and see what apps tokens are going to and what the inference content was classified as. It's quite revealing.

	▲	estearum 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yeah, the costs of that use case far outweigh the benefits.
	▲	mmooss 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		How would that regulation interfere with role play? Role play is 'play'; people know what it is. It shouldn't interfere with immersion: People suspend disbelief in movie theaters or reading books, despite knowing it's a film or novel. The risk with AI is that people don't understand what an LLM is.
	▲	selectodude 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Like online gambling, some things cause more harm than good.

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ericol 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I don't need a computer to mimic a human. AT ALL

As a matter of fact, for the line of work I do (programming, devops, the works) being conscious about the fact that I am just getting an algorithm outputting text that is probabilistically related to the input I gave it would actually be healthy for me and my mental state.

I HATE having to say "you" when working with an LLM.

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marcus_holmes 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I have the same urge - third-person the LLM is an it, for sure, but I'm not aware of a suitable second-person construction for talking to things. Maybe we need to invent one.

	▲	wpm 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		When yelling at the other appliances I own, "you" usually turns into "you fucker" or "you useless piece of shit", so I stick with what I know. "Claude, you useless piece of shit, I already told you..."

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mmooss 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Don't say 'you'?

One solution is to use commands (imperatives), as you've always done with computers. For example, instead of 'you are an expert in Lisp', say 'function as an expert in Lisp.'

Are there use cases where that isn't applicable.

▲ 4b11b4 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Seriously: for the sake of all future children, the elderly, and everyone in between