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Comment by xanderlewis | Hacker News Reader

> GPT-4 being better at almost everything than any single human, is a trivially verifiable fact.

You are either very wilfully ignorant or deluded beyond redemption. Name one thing GPT-4 does better than a competent human — beyond sheer volume of output.

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Translating any language.

That is indeed probably the strongest application (indeed, the original motivation for the development of) LLMs. But it's not one thing. It may be able to 'translate any language', but it fails to be as good as the best translator of any given language. GPT-4 does indeed have a range exceeding that of any human ever, but if you fix a domain then it won't come out on top.

So try again.

I'm no wizard of AI or anything, but Claude 3 has been exceptionally good for me at malicious compliance and bureaucratic red tape wars allowing me to bring an additional (and welcome) perspective into complex circumstances. I've also used Claude for some math and physics problems and while it can get off the rails if unconstrained or if the problem is poorly defined, it's surprisingly good and its logic matches other humans at the undergrad level. But, I'll also be the very first person to call this technology a stochastic parrot. I'm not opposed to using a screwdriver for a hammer, if it works.

Look, that's my point: for any given specific task, there are some humans better at it than GPT-4. But there are no humans that are this good at more than a handful things simultaneously. GPT-4 is. It's not word-class in anything, but it's above average in almost everything. That's a very useful quality to have.

Is it, though? The world needs quality work, not vast amounts of mediocrity.

The world runs on mediocrity. To demand otherwise is a mistake of perfectionism.

Think of the grocery store you frequent, or the barber you visit, or the accountant that does your taxes or keeps company books. They may be the best available to you, but by world standard, they're all mediocre. Hopefully, you don't hold it against them.

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