this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2025
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It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes (defector.com)
submitted 5 days ago by tux0r@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
101 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Money quote:

Excel requires some skill to use (to the point where high-level Excel is a competitive sport), and AI is mostly an exercise in deskilling its users and humanity at large.

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[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think it would be infinitely better for an LLM to walk a user through the use of the formula in their specific use case rather than do it for them... but that won't sell as well because most people don't want to learn to use a spreadsheet they just want to do a thing and move on to something else. This is how it is sold and this is why it is used, in most cases. It's not a hammer that people misused despite there being nothing in the sales material about it's usefulness as a bludgeoning device against other humans. LLMs, spreadsheet copilot included, is commonly packaged and sold as a magic solution that will just do the work for you, with an asterisk and fine print stating that it's for entertainment purposes only and that whoever isn't liable for any false information or whatever bullshit clause they come up with. People use it as it is sold to them and that's what worries me.

another optional tool at users' disposal.

I just had my place of work upgrade me to Windows 11 this week. In order to install office, I was directed by Microsoft to download the "Office 365 Copilot" app which downloaded the office installer. Copilot is not subtle. It may be technically optional but good lord does it want you to know about and use it for everything.

And no, I didn't try it yet. I will likely be trying it and Gemini soon out of curiosity. Last time I tried to use it I was given hallucinated nonexistant python modules and powershell commands that wasted my time. It's been a year or so though.

[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

I think it would be infinitely better for an LLM to walk a user through the use of the formula in their specific use case rather than do it for them

The one time I used it (via the Microsoft 365 Copilot), that's exactly what it did. It only created the table in the spreadsheet that I wanted and then explained how to do the formula, explained the bits and bobs of the formula, showed me the code and told me where to put it.

Sure, if I was lazy, I'd just copy-paste without thinking, but the information was there.

but that won’t sell as well because most people don’t want to learn to use a spreadsheet they just want to do a thing and move on to something else (...) with an asterisk and fine print stating that it’s for entertainment purposes only and that whoever isn’t liable for any false information

At the same time, you could be arguing that calculators should be teaching people how to do maths, instead of just giving them the result, right? It's actually a bit similar to LLMs, because, well, if you don't know how maths and calculators work, you can get a result that's horribly wrong (try 3+2*3 on any simple calculator and you'll get 15).

I just had my place of work upgrade me to Windows 11 this week (...) I was directed by Microsoft to download the “Office 365 Copilot” app which downloaded the office installer

So, first of all, it sucks that your IT didn't have the tools to handle this for you in the first place.

Secondly - that's just Microsoft being Microsoft. They love changing names and making things as confusing as possible. Although now Copilot is part of that app, when they originally introduced the new name, it was just a rebranded Microsoft 365 App. We were joking that it was done by some middle manager so he could boast that "100% of Office users now utilise Copilot".

Last time I tried to use it I was given hallucinated nonexistant python modules and powershell commands that wasted my time

I haven't yet seen an LLM that didn't invent PowerShell modules, although recently Copilot's been pretty good.