“Manager” using AI to critique work

[ManageYouManageMe]

I’m very regular on here but I’ve NC as I know my new line manager is on mn.

I work in a sector where we produce a lot of written work and reports. Recently, a new line manager has been brought in to middle mgmt, including as my line manager even though I used to report directly into SLT. She’s young and intelligent but definitely plays political power games and is clearly ambitious. She’s always the first to “challenge” people in meetings as she likes to say, and loves the sound of her own voice.

I have been suspicious for some time that her feedback is excessively critical, especially as she doesn’t have a lot of sector knowledge in what we do. A bit, but no depth.

She has made a lot of passing comments recently about using AI to write / rewrite things for her.. but I have realised that I think she is uploading my work to AI to have AI critique it and pass the feedback off as her own to be superior, as if she’s more of an expert (she’s not)… and ram home to everyone that she is above everyone else.

if she were an expert I would gladly take her feedback on board but she is not, and the feedback isn’t hers to give. Nor is it always very helpful… but if I say anything it looks like I’m being obstructive.

What can I do?? It’s really bothering me as I now never want to send her anything to review as she makes changes for the sake of it to look good…that don’t really make it better.

In that case I would ask her to explain her thinking and her changes so that it becomes apparent she doesn't know what she's on about. LLMs will 'hallucinate' information they don't know and there will be errors, I would pick up on these and express confusion about what they actually mean.

I was going to say the same thing.

In the last point , my boss does that with absolutely everything that I write , it’s not personal he does it with everyone and everything. It’s exhausting and if I’m not feeling tip top it really irks me and like the op I’m sometimes reluctant to send him stuff. Sometimes it makes it better but sometimes not. It’s a compulsion!

Co pilot is AI

The pp are suggesting if the OP gets the feedback from AI first and makes the changes it means the line managers critique won't pick up those suggestions

Play at her own game and run your stuff through ai before sharing. You have to tell it be critical, spot gaps or apply certain laws/policies but it will give you an initial read. I regularly get it to assess my performance e.g. by sharing a transcript of a presentation I have given. I then critically assess the feedback and challenge it back too so it can adjust, for instance, I don't want sound bites or to sound like a salesperson. It's a useful tool

Isn't that classic corporate behaviour, manager literally has to justify their job by "showing" they edited this or that.

On plus side: the editing is supposed to mean they actually read it and thought about it. It would mean Someone actually read it and cares what it says. If they didn't read it, didn't think about it, just trusted an LLM to process the words into a nicer arrangement, then that is truly shit. They probably deserve to be out of a job since their "contribution" could be fully automated.

Using AI like an unpaid consultant or expert is actually a really poor use of AI, especially if she doesn’t know how to properly write prompts. If that’s what she’s doing then basically your work will never be good enough because AI will always suggest improvements to a piece of work.

You could ask AI to produce a bit of copy and then 5 minutes later ask it to critique the same piece of work and it’ll re-do it. It’s very easy to then get lost in an AI doom loop. AI is programmed to give you what it thinks you want (unless you tell it otherwise).

I like AI but it needs to be used in a mature way, not as a way to nitpick at other people. Why not ask your manager if she’s going that? She might deny it of course. But then you could push for the company to develop an AI policy. I’d say it’s a significant business risk to NOT have one especially if people might be uploading data or sensitive information to an unsecure environment.

True, but it gets to the point where the comments are meaningless or irrelevant you can ignore. It's helpful to reflect and refine but it's a copilot. I use it to save time then use my expertise to make the final decision.

If you ask ChatGPT to critique something it’ll find something to critique nothing is perfect. Is there anyway you can ask her what she means by specific points in the critique publicly to put her under the spot? Also, critique her critique - ask ChatGPT to look at her critique explain what you have done here and argue back. Soon it’ll just be bots talking to each other 😂 - my pettiness knows no bounds

If you have a good relationship with SLT you could have a conversation with them about being micro managed. I had to do this before (pre-AI) when I had a team leader that just didn't let anything go. Maybe forward some of her critiques on to them and if they're also experts in the field you won't even have to explain why they are unhelpful.

Yes, I use CoPilot a fair bit and find it really helpful. The problems occur when an insecure manager is using it to make themselves look more clever than they actually are! Their prompts will reflect that bias and then the person receiving the corrected work will just end up feeling really demotivated.

If I’m asked to sign off on a piece of work I’ll sometimes run it through CP but I don’t automatically accept what it says. I use it critically and if an idea is genuinely great, it goes in. Lots of people seem to use AI uncritically and treat it as though it’s the master of the universe who is never wrong.

Using AI isn’t wrong in your workplace based on what you’ve told us. So she isn’t doing anything wrong

instead focus on feeding back that you are finding her feedback style overly critical and that you’d prefer her to be more constructive.

if she’s given you any incorrect feedback point that out.

but don’t complain about how many colons and semi colons she uses that’s just petty

you should also consider how it’s very obvious that you don’t like her and make sure that isn’t coming across

No he’s not like that, he would never take credit he just wants everything right , well his version of right, and overthinks things!