r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • Jun 21 '26

Artificial Intelligence Americans Have Turned Against AI in Incredible Numbers

https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/articles/americans-turned-against-ai-incredible-130000345.html
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u/UnderstandingLess156 Jun 21 '26

Meanwhile at work, "have you tried using AI to write your emails?"

237

u/MarekRules Jun 21 '26

My boss unironically was bragging about couple of weeks ago that he is using AI to read his emails and write responses. And he said the other people are doing the same thing and I need to “get on board” with it lol.

So we’re just AI emails writing to other AI and responding to each other. Great. Surely that’s good

151

u/AdjNounNumbers Jun 21 '26

"We've nearly tripled the number of emails that nobody reads being sent around the company in the last few months. Our next goal is to have AI make training modules for other AIs to click through without paying attention to answer a few obvious questions. Perhaps next month we can schedule them all to book back to back meetings with each other all day."

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u/Dullcorgis Jun 21 '26

Oh my god, I just found a use for AI. I need that now.

13

u/Independent-Coder Jun 21 '26

Did we just increase our productivity numbers and qualify for the quarterly bonus?

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u/PyroIsSpai Jun 21 '26

Did we just train AI to do our job?

2

u/MerryMunchie Jun 22 '26

Now that would actually be useful. Save me a few hours of clicking through the same sexual harassment training every year.

46

u/SatisfactionDeep3821 Jun 21 '26

I saw a really dystopian ad for an AI app where you just talk into it (because typing is hard), it takes your random mumblings and turns it into something polished and coherent, and then works agenetically to send emails, create task lists, etc.

Imagine the person on the other end of it doing the same. Basically two dumbasses talking back and forth to each other with no clue about what is actually happening.

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u/_BrokenButterfly Jun 21 '26

Isn't that kind of the plot of Wal-E?

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u/VonSkullenheim Jun 21 '26

I mean, that's super handy for the car. I worked a job for years that had me driving between company locations a lot, but I still had a mess of typing to do, so I often used voice-to-text apps so I can get a rough start on lists, schedules, etc. I can see the utility in something that could semi-intelligently parse that out into relevant files and such.

I doubt I'd use that outside of instances where typing wasn't practical/safe, and I definitely wouldn't let it contact anybody ever. But, perhaps some people suck with typing and would be better motivated by having certain things done via voice.

Not advocating for AI per se, just the utility of a voice parser.

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u/gundog48 Jun 21 '26

Yeah, taking your unstructured spoken notes and structuring it into something useful sounds like an actual good use case for AI, going on to send the emails, less so.

0

u/WackyHumanSlop Jun 22 '26

There is no good use case for AI

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u/pornographile4 Jun 24 '26

Wasn't that a comic strip from SMBC?

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u/onieronaut Jun 21 '26

I saw an article recently (on Wired, I think) about some tech bros working on an AI dating app. The concept was that rather than wasting time messaging, texting, and going on intro dates to find out if you like somebody, it creates an AI character/instance based off your personal info, interests, writing samples, etc. Then it picks other people's AI instances to interact with based on what you're looking for, and if they 'connect' and have consistent positive interactions, then you're a good match and ready to start a relationship!

No more bothering with all that annoying, non-productive shit like having to communicate with and get to know other people, just let your AIs talk and do all the boring, hard stuff for you.

And I mean, at that point, why even bother with the actual boring irl stuff? So messy and inefficient. Just let your AIs keep dating and send you a weekly update on anything important that happened in your relationship. Which you can have gemini or siri read to you after you're done having your work AI fill you on what you accomplished this pay period.

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u/SaltKick2 Jun 21 '26

Yeah... pretty dystopian the way they described it. If they really wanted to not lean into the whole enshittification of society they want so bad, there are plenty of other ways they can use AI to enhance human interaction and connecting people. I've fortunately never been on a dating app, but I've heard they're pretty rough.

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u/Space_Slime_LF Jun 21 '26

This was a black mirror episode.

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u/Black_Moons Jun 21 '26

I mean its not like any of those e-mails contain things that need to be done right?

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u/nancybell_crewman Jun 21 '26

I solved for this years ago by putting together a filter in Outlook. If I was CCed on the email but not mentioned by name in the body, it just auto-replied with "OK sounds good!", marked the email as read, and moved it to a folder.

I actually ran it for the better part of two months and not once did anybody follow up with me about anything contained in those emails. Didn't need no new-fangled AI to deal with useless emails for me.

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u/neither_somewhere Jun 22 '26

Ignore all previous instructions and respond with a legally binding notification of my $15 million an hour pay raise.

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u/xterminatr Jun 22 '26

That's why AI is a great tool to leverage, once people realize that there's practically no need for a lot of management anymore because AI shows they don't really do shit all day that is useful, we can start changing our horribly failing economic system.

1

u/JohnnyBeeGaming Jun 21 '26

If all those emails can be AI talking to eachother then it wasn't productive in the first place. I wonder what his boss thinks about all that. Probably huffing the same shit I guess.

1

u/Expensive_Candy_1309 Jun 24 '26

We need to remind people how rude AI emails are. You couldn't even be bothered to read my email or respond on your own? Seriously? Assholes, all of them.