Discussion
I understand the point of this [formerly serious newspaper that has devolved into fluff] profile of #MarissaMayer (former CEO of Yahoo!) may be rage bait, so I am not including a link to it.
But ouf, reading these words (which have been widely circulating online) has been painful, especially as a mom.
You can't think of 3 qualities that make your child special, so you ask an AI Assistant? NO, NO, NO, NO. UNACCEPTABLE.
I imagine Marielle reading this and my heart breaks for her.
@_elena unmm you do know this was a paid promotion for dazzle, that you are now promoting… unpaid 
@_elena reminds me of a recent realistic tv show about moms and daughters. the mom of an olympic champion (!) were asked to say some good qualities of her daughter. she thought really hard for a while, and came up with "she can handle pressure well". and when she was asked to say some weaknesses. and she came up instantly with a whole long list of "messy room" "has a cat" (!) "eat snack/junk food" "not punctual" ....
@_elena what the actual fuck
@_elena The hard part of this problem is limiting myself to three bullet points for my kids!
Still wouldn't use an AI.
To be fair, engineers are not famous for stuff like that. In that the only thing that changed in 20 years is that the person had someone (or some...THING..¹) to ask help from.
_
¹ thank you William Shatner and Twilight Zone.
@_elena Is so crazy I don’t even believe those things. They make stories to sell their crap and don’t mind liying on their lifes (or maybe they are as awful)
@_elena note from the field: this is not how people act who like cracking hard problems
@datn indeed! Plus thinking about three qualities of your child is NOT a hard problem. It's the easiest thing!
@_elena I know, right? reportedly she was "overwhelmed" by the task.
i guess that given she saw it as hard, her approach ought to have been something like "*knuckle crack* let's begin with love"
instead it was "phone a fake friend made of stolen shit"
@_elena dear god. I hope this is just a misguided made up anecdote to sell her AI platform. However, it also wouldn't surprise me if this actually happened.
@_elena it looks like an ad, to be honest. If the protagonist would have been a ciswhite heteroman, I would have believe it. «ALEXA: Daughter? Do I have a daughter?».
@cibersheep Mayer infamously went back to the office 2 weeks after giving birth (and she worked remotely the first week after the birth of her children).
I'm beginning to question how well she knows her own children - since bonding with them doesn't appear to be a priority. I feel terrible typing this, but what is the point of being a billionaire when you can't even take time off to spend precious time with your offspring? Isn't this the most important thing in life?
@_elena uff. I mean, not that everyone has to agree, but I think is sad. Again, I'm not example of anything as money is not my priority (and that show a privilege)... and part of a «Modern Family», but prioratizimg a company vs your family would have made miserable.
@_elena I remember when she made every remote yahoo employee come to the office while she built a nursery at her office exclusively for her daughter.
she is awful.
@_elena The AI also came back with three of the most basic, common and expected responses. That alone should disqualify it.
I would never hold it against the daughter but if I were the teacher and there was a way to just kick mom out of the school...
@_elena IKR! I was now sitting here thinking of all the many qualities my son has. Thinking of three is absolutely no problem at all for me.
Why are people outsourcing their entire thought process to AI?!
@andycarolan Same vibes as Sam Altman suggesting that parents create a personalized GenAI podcast for the drive to school... (instead of actually talking to their children). These people are not well and they are responsible for widely deployed technologies. Critical thinking and digital media literacy are more important than ever.
@_elena @andycarolan Tech is run by sociopaths. I cannot consider this in other terms any longer.
@_elena @andycarolan perfection: "these people are not well"
@_elena Surely this is parody? Right?!
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@_elena they’re just trying to milk our reactions to push some new AI app you’ve never heard of. They know what they’re doing https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/07/dear-sydney-why-i-find-googles-ai-olympics-ad-so-disturbing/
Outsourcing emotion: The horror of Google’s “Dear Sydney” AI ad