Comment by ThoAppelsin
1 day ago
I don’t understand why this one is all the way down here despite being the only reply that answers the questions asked. And the answers are right: We all do our work based on the context. We would process the same request differently under different circumstances.
System prompts (and user-made AGENTS.md on top of that) are simply the very didactic and direct way to provide that context to LLMs. I guess it would be more dignified from the LLM’s perspective and less weird for us to create blank agents and then to actually go through a real onboarding process.
If the question is “why these agents cannot come blank to us and not be semi-onboarded with vendor prompts, and leave all the onboarding to us...” well, that is I believe because they believe that the users will like the agents better when primed in those ways than if they were to come blank, and because the agents’ work will align better with their ideals that way.
My guess is people are upset that this technology is getting pushed on them and through the industry with the promise (and shown side effect) of replacing them permanently. The failure modes of adopting this technology (early) then corroborates their anger (slop code, employees being lazy/deferring their AI bugs on them, unrealistic mania in the industry, the obvious grift, etc.). And this is all off the heel of large (and continuing) layoffs (regardless of your belief in why they have/are happening).
For people who are very pro these tools and trying to have a rational/calm conversation about practical use of AI, this response is likely very annoying. For people who are very anti these tools and trying to protect their way of life, the pro (or even tempered) reaction to wanting to use these tools effectively likely comes off as callous/idiotic/dangerous.
It's a heated technology and movement in general.
Well said.