I'll go a step further and to say this it's genuinely unsettling someone type to a computer like this. I won't claim to be a psychologist, but with how many instances of "AI psychosis" have been reported (and I've seen first-hand) it seems like treating the computer like a computer is safer, not to mention more effective e.g. lower token usage.
I agree that AI psychosis is a real risk in vulnerable populations (GPT-4o in particular seemed borderline predatory towards those types of people, with its extreme sycophancy), and you should remain clear-eyed while using models. That said, I think exhibiting basic courtesy is still well within the safe-zone. I guess we'll see - I'll be sure to let you know if I end up going psychotic.
Personally, I think having to constantly mode-switch between "courtesy / collegial" and "terse / cold" is a bit exhausting and a little risky. What if I get tired and accidentally treat a human co-worker like a computer? Risk with no upside. Might as well just stay in "courtesy / collegial" mode for all of my conversations, regardless of whether I'm talking to a robot or human.
On the other hand I find it quite disturbing to see people be unpleasant or even downright cruel to something that, on a surface level, interacts with you like it’s a thinking, feeling being. Surely you should feel some aversion towards doing so?
I do get where you’re coming from though. I wish these systems had been trained to be clearly robotic and unfeeling.
I mean I agree with this as well, the people who yell and swear at LLMs are just as bad as the people who chit-chat with them like they're friends. It's all very unsettling because it's prepatory for psychological manipulation at unprecedented scale. Targeted advertising on steroids.