It's weird to be mean to a toaster, but it's also weird to be nice to a toaster. I'm not going to say please and thank you to my toaster.

Counterpoint: it is normal to be mean and to be nice to a toaster

I yell at my inanimate objects all the time. They don’t have feelings. I’m not going to be nice to something that is being hailed as the next big thing and yet can’t play chess without cheating but can convince children to kill themselves.

ok well im a baby and your post is so annoying that im going to kms so what about rhat

It's like kicking a roomba the roomba doesn't mind but it's still corrosive to the soul

and while the roomba may not "mind" you're definitely increasing the odds that you damage it in some way. *even if* you think llms are stochastic parrots and your actions can only affect you if there's another soul to see them, how do you expect it to not negatively impact outputs?

you would think it was weird to yell at the toaster or the fridge or whatever, yeah

To be fair, threatening my laptop with defenestration has proven quite effective in the past...

When you use an LLM as a programming assistant, this is how you start. Eventually you get frustrated and you’re mean to it, and it does what you want. Eventually you just start out mean

i yell at this thing daily because motherfucker THEY MERGED IN FRONT OF ME HOW AM I FOLLOWING TOO CLOSE

Unquestionably false. I've cursed at my bed when I've stubbed my toe, my various computers over the decades, my fridge when it broke, my A/C, hell, if I place something on the table and it slides off onto the floor later, that'll usually get a "oh fuck you!" from me.

I tried being mean to an llm to see how it would feel & chatgpt said "😯"

If the toaster burns or fails to toast my bread, or if the fridge stops cooling, I’m gonna get irritated and yell at it to vent my frustration. They don’t care - they’re inanimate objects - and I get to release my frustration. An LLM is also an inanimate object that has given me bad advice.

Ok but you see how lashing out at an inanimate object isn't very healthy for your soul

Better the object than bottling it in and taking it out in my family.