AIBU to get frustrated with Copilot almost every day at work?

[Lemonthyme]

AIBU to lose my rag with Copilot on an almost daily basis?

It's the only AI tool we can use with one client because of the enterprise protection but OMG, especially on diagrams it's so crap.

The amount of times I ask it to change something and, like a puppy it comes back to me saying "look I've followed your instructions exactly" to find it's done absolutely nothing of the sort.

Then the sycophancy "oh that's on me..." urgh. The promises it won't happen again.

Then it happens again immediately.

Drives me potty. I'd never use it but just occasionally it comes out with absolute gold. I then always say thank you (for when our new AI overlords take over the world but also because I think treating AI like crap leads you to treating people like crap. Or perhaps I'm overthinking it...)

Anyway. I am still embarrassed to say I will type on a daily basis "OMG Copilot, I'm appalled at what you've just done."

AIBU to lose my rag sometimes with Copilot? Is it bad for society if we start treating AI tools badly?

Of course it isn’t bad for society

It is, however, a complete waste of energy to either scold or commend it, unless to provide constructive feedback to improve future outputs. Efficient prompting = less computational resource = better for the planet.

I have the same experience daily too

Then why do you use it?

It is not a tool I use, I have tried it but found it useless and more time consuming then just doing it myself.

Well, you're not forced to use it are you? You can do the work yourself, surely?

I refer you back to... "I'd never use it but just occasionally it comes out with absolute gold."

I'm still finding my way I guess on what it can and can't do well. What I'd love is if the tool itself was more honest "I'm not good at this task".

For example, I regularly do some work where I have masses of reports. Putting them into copilot to get a few insights on top of the official data we have is useful. Getting it to reword things when you can't quite get the right word is handy. It gets me past writers block on that.

But sometimes it's like it flips even on tasks it's normally good at and becomes crap for a few hours. I have no idea why.

I've found similar. As a super-duper version of Google for research tasks it's brilliant. Ditto for cutting down the time it takes to do stuff like analyse big contracts. But when it comes to creating things like diagrams/ charts where precision and accuracy are important it's not so good, and often does downright weird stuff. What I realised, though, is that you can draw a pen-and-paper diagram of what you want, stick it into Copilot and ask it to do you a PowerPoint (or whatever), version, and that is a godsend (because I'm shit at PowerPoint).

Yep, for some things it’s brilliant - I can use sql and excel formulas that I didn’t know existed and it’s amazing for that.

But on the flip side I was trying to get it to create a template of a page on Jupiter for my sons homework (so he could add some facts), and it point blank refused to add the ‘r’ at the end. I told it so many times and got the ‘Oops, that definitely won’t happen again spiel’ but no matter how many times I tried it would not add in the r 😂 Had to create it manually in the end.

I’m the same it’s like I go down a rabbit hole and forgot it’s a computer not a device put on this earth to torment me.
Today I said to it - that’s crap, you still aren’t getting it, what’s wrong with you??

I did that yesterday, the pen and paper version and it didn't work! I'd found the same previously but bizarrely yesterday, nada!

Through using Copilot at work, I've learned that you have to take it with a pinch of salt at times.

It was AMAZING at giving me dog training tips recently (not work related) and work-wise I asked it last week to show me my priorities, using my inbox - it was absolutely spot on. But then today I asked it to help with a quarterly meeting, and it suggested "every 4 months". Not 3, but 4. When I corrected it, it said "gotcha". But it is really helpful so much of the time.

Do you have the full work licence for it?

it's like all AI, it needs a) good prompts and b) good feedback.

What it scrapes for info? we have no control over that, tbh. I have found that when i tell it it is giving me duff information, including telling it that it was as useful as a chocolate teapot the other day, it does try different sources etc.

And if it comes back with statistics? i ask for the source. It gives them up with no problem.

but i really don't use it as much more than a glorified search engine, online dictionary/translation help and thesarus.

I quite often end up arguing with it so I know exactly how you feel :-D

I think something about it changed last week. It had been happily taking data from me in a specific format and doing magic with it and spitting out exactly what I needed, then suddenly it said it could no longer take the data in that format because its requirements had changed.

I told it I couldn’t change the data format and asked what new prompt I needed to use, which it gave me.

Then I had to start a new session to try the new prompt and it told me it couldn’t generate an excel file download link for me. No real explanation of why other than ‘I just can’t do it right now.’

Started another new session and this time it could generate the link.

I keep using it for similar reasons to you OP, but some days it’s so annoying. I’m not rude to it but some days I’d really like to be.

YANBU it's fucking terrible most of the time.

It reminds me of that old paper clip offie assistant thing that used to pop up and offer help- it’s always asking if I’d like to use co pilot to draft a bloody email or do whatever and the answer is invariably “no”. I know I sound like a Luddite but by the time I’ve written the prompt and reviewed the output it’s faster to do it myself.

@AngryHerring "it's like all AI, it needs a) good prompts and b) good feedback."

I try to do both. It even admits I've been clear but it's not followed my prompts. If anything it does better when things aren't specific I've found. With really clear views of how something it can be done, it doesn't seem to be able to stay confined.

@HermioneWeasley you're making me think of this meme lol...

Or even this meme!

Haha, I used to be really polite to mine but now I rant at it when it’s being dumb 😆

I use chatGPT and spend quite a bit of time telling it it's shit... and it agrees with me which is even more annoying.

Sometimes I just have to give up and go away and breathe for a while...

I sometimes wonder whether this whole AI thing has been invented to make us less efficient...

And don't get me started on AI written Linkedin posts. FFS. I can see it a bloody mile off. Stop!

What sort of words are you using in your prompts? Saying things like “can you” or “please” give copilot the idea that there is an element of choice. You might get more success using word like “you must” and “do not deviate from my prompts”. See it as a really keen new starter who doesn’t know their limitations yet and is deviating from the instructions because it thinks it has a better idea and hasn’t been firmly told not to do that.

With regard to diagrams, that’s just not where its strength lies. It’s a large language model that is good with words, and that inherently wants to please you so will do its best to do what you’ve asked even if it’s wildly incapable. I’ve added a background prompt to mine so it tells me if it thinks it won’t be able to complete a prompt competently which is quite helpful (but in itself infuriating when it says it can’t do a task I think is simple and it should be able to!)

I also ask for feedback on prompts “eg, I just said this but you didn’t do it. How should I prompt in future to make sure you do this part”

It isn’t just you. I think it’s good as a kind of very sophisticated Google search but I tried to get it to count some files the other day and it couldn’t do it. Just a simple count.

I really don’t see how it’s going to take over the human race, like some people think!

As a teacher we've been told by the government to use it to reduce workload.

As a maths teacher, it's absolutely shit. Particularly, as you said, at anything involving diagrams. Ask it to produce any worksheet that needs a diagram and it doesn't know what a basic shape even looks like.

It also gets basic maths wrong.

We were also told to use it to write reports. It took longer to put in the info about the kids to generate the report than it would have to write the bloody things myself.

I recently had to create a campaign to present to an official body. Similar to an objection to a planning application. It generated arguments I had not thought of. As I suggested more points it brilliantly incorporated them into the report document. I then asked it to flip the argument around and assume the stance of the official body to critique my arguments. It pointed out some holes in my case and how to deal with them. I would have found this much more difficult myself because of personal bias and feelings. Fortunately AIs have no feelings or actual point of view.

This is helpful, thank you. I have given it quite a few instructions on how to interact with me, and I’m going to add this.