iOS 18: Apple Mail App May Help You Compose and Reply to Your Emails

[ProbablyDylan]

And if you’re training it on your own writing, why do you even need it? A machine that mimics your writing seems like the definition of useless.

Tone management. Type out what I want to say, feed it to the machine and have it turn up or down the condescending factor for example.

If spelling and grammar checkers are your proofreaders, AI can be your editor. One double checks what you wrote for technical errors, the other checks your attitude.

 

[Mr_Ed]

Tone management. Type out what I want to say, feed it to the machine and have it turn up or down the condescending factor for example.

If spelling and grammar checkers are your proofreaders, AI can be your editor. One double checks what you wrote for technical errors, the other checks your attitude.

Seems to me that’s more trouble than it’s worth. You presumably have a good idea of what “tone” you want to take if you plan to instruct AI to tune it. If you are already typing it out to feed the AI “editor,” why wouldn’t you just write it using whatever tone you deem appropriate at the time?

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Seems to me that’s more trouble than it’s worth. You presumably have a good idea of what “tone” you want to take if you plan to instruct AI to tune it. If you are already typing it out to feed the AI “editor,” why wouldn’t you just write it using whatever tone you deem appropriate at the time?

AI could've helped you get your point across clearer, though as you say, you must've chosen that tone.

Personally, I choose not to take myself so seriously. If I can use this machine as an anger translator, why shouldn't I?

 

[Surf Monkey]

Tone management. Type out what I want to say, feed it to the machine and have it turn up or down the condescending factor for example.

If spelling and grammar checkers are your proofreaders, AI can be your editor. One double checks what you wrote for technical errors, the other checks your attitude.

I don’t need an editor for casual personal emails. No one does.

 

[StyxMaker]

Interesting! My wife and I are convinced that spelling is borderline genetic! I have always spelled well. Her? Not so much. At least she used to not be very good at spelling, but thanks for MS spellcheck on Windows 98 on, she is vastly improved!

Now if you don't mind, I am going to turn off Mac spellcheck because I completely agree with you on the craziness. Thanks for the reminder.

As credited to Mark Tain, ‘It’s a dull man who can only think of one way to spell a word’.

 

[Surf Monkey]

AI could've helped you get your point across clearer, though as you say, you must've chosen that tone.

Personally, I choose not to take myself so seriously. If I can use this machine as an anger translator, why shouldn't I?

The problem is that you’re talking about stylistic choices. For a system like this to make stylistic choices it has to mimic someone’s personal style. That’s a completely different thing than checking against spelling and grammar, both of which are essentially objective tools that everyone uses.

See, we already have these tools called dictionaries, thesauruses and style guides that show people how to use language. Taking it beyond those things in software means you’re going to have to adopt someone’s idiosyncratic style. Therefore you have to either train the system yourself (basically giving up your data for free) to achieve a questionable end result or train it on public domain writing. Public domain writing is not typically in the contemporary idiom so that will lead to problems as well, not to mention that this is essentially plagiarism on a slightly more subtle level.

Seriously. It doesn’t take much thought to see why this is a bad idea.

 

[ATmahe]

Maybe they should first focus on other stuff.
Like respecting the order of subfolders and not just display them alphabetically.
Fixing the mailcount (it shows me 4 flagged mails, but there are none).
And so on …
For me there are many little annoyances…

I don’t need help writing a mail …

 

[Mr_Ed]

AI could've helped you get your point across clearer, though as you say, you must've chosen that tone.

Personally, I choose not to take myself so seriously. If I can use this machine as an anger translator, why shouldn't I?

If (big IF) I understand what you are saying here combined with a previous post where you mentioned AI checking “your attitude,” sounds like you are very concerned about how a reader may perceive/interpret your emotions through your writing.

I think that to the extent that writing can convey emotion, be that through explicit statements to that effect, by stylistic choices, or through tone, it is often useful since we don’t get the benefit of seeing facial expressions or hearing vocalized tone with writing. If a person or situation made you angry, you are angry. If something made you sad, you are sad. No need to “sanitize” that in personal communications. Communication devoid of emotion seems so incomplete to many, that emoticons became almost ubiquitous. Public communications are only slightly different in that there are different expectations for decorum, like for example, name calling being frowned upon.

 

[pksv]

At whose expense? Who’s writing are you going to train it on? Are they getting paid? And if you’re training it on your own writing, why do you even need it?

When it comes to local LLM, the cost to the user is the cost of the minimum amount of energy consumed by your device, that's all.

And if you’re training it on your own writing, why do you even need it? A machine that mimics your writing seems like the definition of useless.

I see hundreds of usability scenarios, and the first one that comes to my mind - disabled people with progressive disabilities.

Grammar and spell check are all that’s required. An AI writing personal emails is creepy and wrong.

You keep repeating this personal communication, but email is not used only for this form of communication.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

I think that to the extent that writing can convey emotion, be that through explicit statements to that effect, by stylistic choices, or through tone, it is often useful since we don’t get the benefit of seeing facial expressions or hearing vocalized tone with writing. If a person or situation made you angry, you are angry. If something made you sad, you are sad. No need to “sanitize” that in personal communications. Communication devoid of emotion seems so incomplete to many, that emoticons became almost ubiquitous. Public communications are only slightly different in that there are different expectations for decorum, like for example, name calling being frowned upon.

Which is why I wouldn't use it for personal communication. Professional communication, like work emails, is the ideal place to use an "Editor" AI.

There are too many people in my workplace that would take offense to even minimally passive-aggressive emails. Rather than ending up in another meeting with HR, I just enlist an editor.