"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
On Thursday there was a guy in my history class who was using ChatGPT the entire time.
We were watching a documentary and supposed to take notes on a physical sheet of paper. Some of the boxes on that sheet of paper only needed like 4 or 5 words to get the gist of it.
I would like to think if I were a student, that I would use AI to explain things to me that I had too much anxiety to ask. I'd probably to use it to do my homework but to mainly check that I did it right? I'd "like" to think that but I wonder how the temptation would get me to just shortcut it ...?
I'm in software and we have to use it for work. There's some toxic positivity going around with it and everyone is just saying how they don't write code any more and how proud they are of that. They even turn their nose at me because I don't use it as much because I'm lower on the Cursor dashboards than them. I like using AI to explain things to me but I'm mainly a senior so I don't write as much code, I actually spend more time reading and it's far more arduous. We actually have juniors turning into prompt monkeys were they just put everything into AI and if you ask them why, they just put your question into AI and giving it back to you. To be clear, that's been happening to other seniors that work with them. If it was me, I'd rip them apart and tell them I can find a quick way to cut cost in the company if they don't wanna learn anything.
… they just put everything into AI and if you ask them why, they just put your question into AI and giving it back to you.
This must be what it's like for your planet to be taken over by an alien hive mind.
I refuse to believe that the Pluribus series from Vince Gilligan is not actually about AI. There are so many scenes in it that could be adopted to people overusing LLMs.
That's how I felt watching it too... especially with how obsequious all of the 'hive mind' people are. They sound like AI.
I'd probably to use it to do my homework but to mainly check that I did it right.
This is where I’ve found it useful. Or I’ll say to not give me the answer but to show me the method I should follow for a problem I don’t know how to solve.
The problem is that this doesn't work if you don't know the subject matter already. You can't tell the facts from the inevitable hallucinations.
A possible mitigation might be to ask the same question in different phrasings multiple times, and ideally ask different models, to distill the truth that way. But I'm not sure you still save any time, that might actually take longer than just learning the old-fashioned way. Plus you don't learn how to learn, so it's a net negative.
So, it's all going to plan then?
I’d say that social media platforms opened that door a long time a go. A bunch of people telling others what’s cool, what “truth” is being hidden from you, click here for the “fact” you won’t believe, how to do anything but actually think critically about what you’re presented with. People search social media for answers before they look at wikipedia, forget considering a summary from actual scientific sites.
Coupled with algorithms pushing tailored engagement bait over boring facts and AI just wraps it all up in a top search result shoehorned above 10 “Sponsored” links and SEO garbage, there’s no room for boring old critical thought and truth anymore.
If the students don't want to learn, then it's better that they don't learn. They shouldn't be forced to learn.