This article boils down to “man enables feature, is slightly surprised when feature functions.”
Ars is usually better than this. Disappointing
For some reason the author is trying to equate it to an “AI-Mediated breakup” which…doesn’t make sense, a summary of something is not “mediating”
Mediating would be like having the AI write and deliver a breakup text, simply summarizing it isn’t
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To be fair the ‘dystopian’ quote is from the guy that got broken up with, not ARS’ article writer.
I don’t think that’s the part they took issue with.
“I do feel like it added a level of distance to it that wasn’t a bad thing,” he told Ars Technica. “Maybe a bit like a personal assistant who stays professional and has your back even in the most awful situations, but yeah, more than anything it felt unreal and dystopian.”
If the single word “dystopian” is how the editors decided to summarize that description, I’m not sure they’re doing any better than the AI.
Dystopia is when optional feature is enabled
“About a week later right out of the blue she sends me a John Deere letter… Yeah I called her. She gave me a bunch of crap about not listening to her enough. I dunno. I wasn’t really paying attention.”
That John Denver’s full of shit man
I think a John Deere letter may be different.
We reached out to Spreen directly via email and he delivered his own summary of his girlfriend’s messages. “It was something along the lines of i can’t believe you just did that, we’re done, i want my stuff. we had an argument in a bar and I got up and left, then she sent the text,” he wrote.
How did he feel about getting the news via AI summary? “I do feel like it added a level of distance to it that wasn’t a bad thing,” he told Ars Technica. “Maybe a bit like a personal assistant who stays professional and has your back even in the most awful situations, but yeah, more than anything it felt unreal and dystopian.”
This really is just more funny than anything else to me. Sucks it was on his birthday, though.
“we had an argument in a bar and I got up and left, then she sent the text,”
If you abandon your girl in a bar, you should absolutely expect to lose her, birthday or not. She is under no obligation at that point to consider his feelings about his special day.
“She found the Tinder messages; you’re cooked bro”
