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Comment by Version467 | Hacker News Reader

Combine this with ChatGPT and a Pen Plotter and you can offer heartfelt hand-written letters as a service. (That are neither handwritten, nor heartfelt, but people won't notice, or care.)

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I think all of the car dealers I've dealt with the past decade are doing something like this. I get "handwritten" notes from them a few times a year telling me the market is hot for my 5 year old Subaru and I'd be a fool not to trade it in.

I don't know if it's a machine writing the notes or if that's what salespeople do when they aren't busy.

I work for a company that writes a lot of the fundamental technology for car dealers. In most cases you probably are getting actual handwritten notes from salespeople. They’ll absolutely put that minimal effort into lead generation.

Just goes to show how little personalization matters. Unless it's actually personal, it's still fake!

How is getting handwritten notes minimal effort?

Compared to the hoops salespeople jump through on a daily basis to chase down anything that faintly smells like a lead, scribbling notes on mailings is low effort indeed.

Most likely mass printed for targeted mailing with a handwriting style font. I remember getting something similar in the mail written in what appeared to be blue ink from a ballpoint pen. Only to find out my wife got an identical piece of ad mail , just with her name at the top.

Last year there was a discussion about someone making a setup to send handwritten plotted letters here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28587458

I noticed some similar letters several years ago and had a pretty negative response once I figured it out. But these might be enough better I wouldn't notice unless of course I see another one like you did.

https://www.audience.co/did-you-receive-a-fake-handwritten-n...

Japanese companies, such as Honda, have a history of using personal relationships and direct communication to get their products off the ground, such as in the case of Mr. Honda writing to thousands of dealers to ask them to stock his new invention, the bike with an engine, in order to help his company and the Japanese economy to recover.

Do you own a 5 year old Subaru? The universe thinks I own a 2011 Dodge Durango. Never owned a 2011. Never owned a Dodge. Nevertheless I get about one junk mailing a week asserting that I do. All are addressed to the same esoteric spelling of my given name (that I do not use) and my actual correctly spelled family name.

but people won't notice, or care.

Most people, yes. A few will definitely notice and care. Faking this stuff is the fast way to get on my shit list, though I realize I'm in a minority here. I am very pro AI in general, but I am extremely anti-deception. If you send me a 'hand-written note' that really wasn't, why would I trust you about anything else?

I'd generally agree. I personally despise gifts that I receive just because the opposite party felt obligated to give me something. Even if I actively express that my wish is to not receive gifts this is often just ignored because gift giving is so deeply ingrained into our society.

However the more I think about it, I don't think that I'd be opposed to receive a card that was written with the help of an AI. Surely it's much more thoughtful of someone to input a couple of keywords that they associate with me and then pick the best one from a few generated cards, than a generic card with an even more generic phrase and picture on it.

Feels much less like deception to me and more like assisted writing.

One step closer to the movie Her

Seinfeld.

George gets married because of a typo into an AI handwritten letter service he sent to his girlfriend.

Is this spitballing, or did that actually happen in the show? My memory is v.fuzzy.

In "Her" a human is composing the letters so this is one step further.

Ha, it’s the thought that counts!

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