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Why is predictive text so hard to disable? (beehaw.org)

submitted 5 months ago by friendly_ghost@beehaw.org to c/programming@beehaw.org

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Does anyone know, or can anyone guess, the business case for predictive text? On phone apps, it is often incredibly difficult to turn off. Why is that, do you think? (The examples I have recent experience with are Facebook and Outlook mobile apps.)

I would have thought that, for AI training purposes, they would want humans typing things and not just regurgitating canned responses. But apparently not?

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[–] Kissaki@beehaw.org 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I assume you don't mean keyboard text predictions, which would be a different thing, but the platforms.

It's a new convenience feature. Something they as a platform can shine with, retain users, and set themselves apart from other platforms.

Having training data is not the primary potential gain. It's user investment, retention, and interaction. Users choosing the generated text is valid training data. Whether they chose similar words, or what was suggested, is still input on user choice.

It does lead to a convergence to a centralized standard speak. With a self-strengthening feedback loop.

[–] friendly_ghost@beehaw.org 1 points 5 months ago

Thank you! This makes sense to me