Post #4492247

2026-08-11 06:38 UTC

@eyrea@mstdn.ca @paulshryock@phpc.social @jschauma@mstdn.social Excel has a built in help section you could have asked. You could have typed into Google 'excel today's date' (or any other search engine), ignored/turned off AI results and have the answer in seconds. You could have asked a colleague. You could have pressed the f button and looked for 'today'. But you chose to use copilot, knowing what we all know.

Replies (1)

@eyrea@mstdn.ca 2026-08-11 07:27

@JaxVent@lgbtqia.space @paulshryock@phpc.social @jschauma@mstdn.social 😂 And what do you think the built-in help system is made from? Yeah, I could have searched.... if I'd known what key words to search on. And that's still AI these days, even the "non-AI" results. As for my colleagues, they're still adding up long lists of numbers themselves instead of using the SUM formula. So I really don't have anyone to ask. Sorry, but it sounds like I actually know a bit more than you do on this one. For one thing, I know AI has been around for a lot longer than this century. I've always learned spreadsheets by saying "there has to be a way to do this", from the paper reference manuals of the 90s to search to today. The original claim was that anyone using AI didn't want to learn, didn't care how things actually worked. My point was it can be used as a learning and problem-solving tool. Again, that doesn't mean I don't research the negative/unethical sides of AI. And I do agree it's absolutely overhyped.

Open ##4492246