Anyone else uncomfortable with people being rude to digital assistants?

[nightmarevoid]

I feel like I'm pretty much alone in this regard. I've been using digital assistants for as long as I've been able, mostly because I find it fascinating how close we can get to approximating our own interactions, and whether or not there's a point where assistants will have to deviate to continue being efficiently helpful. 

But you know what? A lot of people are super mean to them! ;_;

 

I was raised to be polite at all times, and the boyscouts really cemented this ideology in me. Terminator and The Matrix helped me figure out why I should apply that to Digital Assistants. I don't really get frustrated with them because I know they are nothing more than a system of inputs and outputs, capable of little more than comparing lists of commands. Yet, I see a lot of people getting super frustrated with them and shouting profanities at them. My own girlfriend is guilty of this, which is why I have to quickly mute the self-checkout assistant as soon as we start checking out. Her father has wired the whole house to be controlled with Alexa, but both her and her father get really annoyed by it and behave very rudely to it, and I see many other people doing this as well.

 

What makes me uncomfortable and worries me is how this behavior may reflect onto people. Yeah, digital assistants aren't going to fight back or acknowledge your rudeness in any way, but what about people? I'm really worried that this trend will eventually lead to people being rude to human assistants and workers. I also feel bad for the people who put a genuinely high amount of effort into making these devices, and being so dismissive and rude to it feels like treating those people the same way. Does anyone else feel this way?

[dalekphalm]

No, it doesn't really upset me when others are rude to digital assistants. Plus, sometimes it's funny to mess with Siri, etc, on purpose.

 

I generally do say Thank You to digital assistants (and things like Self-Checkout kiosks at Walmart) - but sometimes I also get super pissed off at these same kiosks because they are coded badly.

[steelo]

LOL...my wife often yells at me when I'm 'mean' to Alexa. Mainly, I'm just playing around but it really seems to upset her that I'm rude to a digital assistant. Weird.

 

Since these devices don't have feelings and aren't much more than consumable products, I don't see the problem. It's not like they have souls...So, if people want to get upset and throw these devices against a wall...hey, it's THEIR money. As long as this doesn't somehow translate to becoming an abusive person to others.

[spartaman64]

if they are doing it jokingly i dont really mind but yeah if they are being serious and actually getting angry then id be uncomfortable. and i dont view it as being rude to the people that made it because they probably dont care as they are probably working in a sweat shop 15 hours a day and its hard to have passion for your work at that point

[steelo]

3 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

if they are doing it jokingly i dont really mind but yeah if they are being serious and actually getting angry then id be uncomfortable

I often get frustrated with google assistant when it doesn't do what I want. However, my anger is more directed towards the developers and google for the product being 'gimmicky' LOL

 

 

[dalekphalm]

I also firmly believe that the closer "AI" gets to real AI, the more polite we as humans need to be.

 

Eventually AI will reach a point where it can decide not to listen to us. When that happens, we had best not give it any extra reasons to dislike us.

 

That's why teaching AI ethics is going to be a massive field in the coming years.

[steelo]

2 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

I also firmly believe that the closer "AI" gets to real AI, the more polite we as humans need to be.

 

Eventually AI will reach a point where it can decide not to listen to us. When that happens, we had best not give it any extra reasons to dislike us.

 

That's why teaching AI ethics is going to be a massive field in the coming years.

I will add, if you have children or younger ones who look up to you, it doesn't set a good example to treat a digital 'assistant' like a slave in front of them...

[Shadowjack]

On one hand why be rude at all?

 

On the other is it even possible to be rude to a digital assistant? Rude is a matter of perception.  Perception requires emotion and self awareness. I would be more alarmed toward someone who

 A. Would bother to be rude toward a digital assistant 

B. Would be emotionally invested in A. 

[AnonymousGuy]

ALEXAAAAAAA tell  me my cock is huge!!!!!

[wasab]

I tell my Google assistant that I will uninstall her and then throw the phone into the trash. 

[akio123008]

I personally prefer not to use DA's in general. They don't seem to make life more convenient while they do take up extra space, use power, are expensive, and introduce the presence of an always active microphone in my house. No thanks.

[nightmarevoid]

2 hours ago, akio123008 said:

I personally prefer not to use DA's in general. They don't seem to make life more convenient while they do take up extra space, use power, are expensive, and introduce the presence of an always active microphone in my house. No thanks.

The microphone part is really creepy. Let me tell you, there's an Amazon intern that has to go to therapy after hearing what I say to myself in "private".

[Ithanul]

3 hours ago, Shadowjack said:

On one hand why be rude at all?

Basically my mentality about these devices.

 

The devices have no emotion and yelling at it is not going to make it perform better.  So, I can't be bother wasting energy yelling or being angry at these types of devices.

 

Reminds me of folks yelling at computers because it don't do something they want (usually a *cough* pebkac issue in some of those occasions).

 

4 hours ago, nightmarevoid said:

I'm really worried that this trend will eventually lead to people being rude to human assistants and workers.

There are already folks out there that act rude towards human assistants and workers.  It is nothing new. 

[Guest]

Smart assistants learn based on your interactions, so I’m always polite to Siri. I always say please, and thank you. 

[Giganthrax]

DIgital assistants aren't real people. They can't get offended. Also, it's cathartic to be able to act rude without actually being rude to anyone. Kinda like how it's fun to do sadistic stuff to video game characters: it's not real so it's fine.