… You aren’t supposed to use it for math… In excel? What is the point?
Comment on Very normal and safe
bus_factor@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
It pains me to defend an AI feature, but this whole tweet is disingenuous and stupid. The documentation for =COPILOT() says a few things which are relevant to understand what we’re seeing here:
- You’re not supposed to use it for math
- It only has access to the parts of the spreadsheet you pass it as the second argument
In this case the user has not provided copilot any cells to look at, do it’s jus asking what the typical answer on the Internet is for the question “sum the numbers above”. And the sum of numbers above things are apparently often 12.
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
bus_factor@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
People do all sorts of weird non-math stuff in Excel. The stated use-case for this feature is stuff that operates on text. Say for example you fill column A with quotes from your customers about your product. Then you can tell Copilot to provide a summary of each row in column B, and whether the sentiment is positive or negative in column C. You could aggregate the results as well.
There are better tools for that sort of thing, but a lot of people really love their Excel hammer, and they see nails everywhere.
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
True, I did forget that it might have been useful for me in one very specific instance where there was a comments section in one of our excel forms and I wanted to summarize the most common words mentioned in those comments. Couldn’t figure out how at the time but this could potentially have figured it out. Not sure I would trust the accuracy of it’s result though
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
But haven’t the makers of Excel said in the past that you shouldn’t use Excel for non-math stuff because that’s not what it’s designed for? Now their putting in a “tool” that’s useless for math stuff?
Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Is there a layperson-accessible way to paste a large number of email adresses and concatenate them with "; " that’s more recommended than spreadsheet software?.
bus_factor@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I don’t know, I’m not that deep in Excel lore. But sometimes things change.
hayvan@piefed.world 4 weeks ago
Big part of the problem with AI features is that way too many people believe they are silver bullet for everything and they are marketed like that.
Computer savvy people know better ways of doing math and can figure out that context is needed.
Overwhelming majority of people, including bosses and managers, are too lazy and ignorant to care about the points you mention.
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
This is true for every field: people knowledgeable in that field know that there are better ways to do it then AI and easily spot the errors AI makes. AI only looks good in fields you are ignorant about.
Krudler@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
If it’s “not supposed to be used for math” then it should pop a modal that says “I don’t do math”.
sqw@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
if you’re not supposed to use it for math, maybe it shouldn’t produce numbers/formulas.
PineRune@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Keep in mind that if you allow a user to make this mistake, people will DEFINITELY make this mistake. A lot.
Tyrq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
And if that’s true, just imagine something any more compex, that could get lost amid the rest of the slop for a long time
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
Is the analogy like giving access to a nuclear reactor to users and giving them access to AI to help them run the nuclear plant by allowing the AI to give users the most common answers and responses into how to run a nuclear power plant.
Tyrq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
Every job is just some sort of troubleshooting, it just makes it harder to do when your manual is making stuff up
bus_factor@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
That is true for a lot of things, particularly every AI feature ever.
yermaw@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Dont you just tell the AI to make no mistakes