Comment by mvdtnz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mvdtnz | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to know more about the claimed usage figures of OpenAI. I'd like to know more about how many people are really actively using it. I can't stop hearing about LLMs in places like Hacker News, but in my real life away from the tech sphere if I asked someone if they know what OpenAI or ChatGPT are I'd say maybe half would be aware of it, a small fraction would have ever used it a single time and I don't believe I know a single person who actively uses it to get things done.

I think an overwhelming majority of users prompt it to generate a wedding speech speech in the style of H.P. Lovecraft or whatever, have a giggle and never use it again. I am so sceptical of the claimed figures, especially the often-repeated claim that "ChatGPT [is] the fastest-growing consumer application in history"[0].

[0] https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-sets-record-faste...

I learnt to code decades ago and later studied computer science and physics. I now work in marketing more than anything (the marketing side of other things like film, tech and politics). To do that I often build websites and apps. ChatGPT is invaluable to me. I use it as a coding assistant. It can write things in languages I don’t know enabling things that weren’t possible within budget a year ago. It works because I have the technical skill to prompt it properly - writing larger pieces of code in pieces - and because I have the ability to identify errors and fix them. If limited to the raw output it would be an exercise in frustration, but as a person with coding chops I can 5x my output by providing detailed feedback and suggested approaches. It’s quite revolutionary. That said though I work with text, photos and video I find it useless and uninspiring for creative output. For me it’s purely a technical tool.

I use it in a limited get things done way as a kind of substitute for Stack Overflow as in here's my code, here's the error message, what did I do wrong? I've also found it quite handy for legal questions - asking it questions of UK law it can be surprisingly good and regular lawyers surprisingly bad in a being too busy not returning calls kind of way.

But yeah, I don't know many people using it for practical stuff.

I would say at least 95% of university students are using ChatGPT on their programming assignments.

Src: I teach at a University

"Fastest growing" is a suspect statistic even when it is technically accurate. A company can go from having one customer to three, and honestly exclaim, "We tripled our user base in one day!"

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