The uncomfortable truth is that AI is the world’s greatest con man. The tools and hype around them have created an environment where AI is incredibly effective at fooling people into thinking it is knowledgeable and helpful, even when it isn’t. And the people it is fooling aren’t knowledgeable enough in the topics being described to realize they’re being conned, and even when they realize they’ve been conned, they’re too proud to admit it.
This is exactly why you see people that are deeply knowledgeable in certain areas pointing out that AI is fallible, meanwhile you have people like CEOs that lack the actual technical depth in topics praising AI. They know just enough to think they know what “good” looks like, but not enough to realize when the “good” output is just lipstick on a pig.
Almost sixty years after ELIZA, chatbots seem to still produce a very strong emotional reaction to some folks.
I think it's too early to call whether AI is the answer to that question, but I think it could be. Yes, LLMs are terrible in all kinds of ways, but there's clearly something there that's of great value. I use it all day every day as a staff-level engineer, and it's making me much better and faster. I can see glimmers of intelligence there, and if we're on a road that delivers human-level intelligence in the next decade, it's difficult to see what else would qualify as the greatest tool humanity has ever invented.
Language, fire, writing; in that order.
Language, Writing, and the Scientific Method.
It is incapable of knowledge.
I’m bored of it.
I think there’s lot of dangers and problems with it and frankly I’d probably be happier if it was never invented. But even then I can still see the value it has
Ever had this conversation with ChatGPT?
- ChatGPT: Here's my solution!
- You: This is wrong, you need to do X.
- ChatGPT: You're right! My solution was wrong because [repeats what you said]. Here’s my revised answer!
- You: This is still wrong. I said do X.
- ChatGPT: Understood! This clarifies: [still gets it wrong].
Or worse, you can trick it:
- ChatGPT: X + Y = Z (which is actually correct)
- You: No, X + Y = Q (which is false)
- ChatGPT: You're right, X + Y = Q is correct because...
I guess it's useful for generating boilerplate code or text, but even then, it often makes mistakes.
As any tool, it takes knowledge and responsibility. Just lile the unix chainsaw.
Not about the tool, though, but about people (who, granted, have some connection to the tool, even if indirectly).
We've had people for hundreds of thousands of years, so fair to say that they have become quite boring.
So would the greatest tool in human history in your mind be something that is used to plagiarise most content in the world and then output correct-30%-of-the-time slop? Or is there another definition you would use?
I'm struggling to think how this could even be in the top 10 tools in human history.
That's not to say the Internet hasn't caused good things to happen, but to ignore the bad things is counterproductive. Maybe it's ok to slow down and take a step back to make sure we're not doing more bad than good.
The funny thing is, it's somewhat less useful for certain business stuff, because so much of that is private within corporations. But the stuff you learn in a PhD program is all published. And it's pretty phenomenal at distilling that information to answer any specific question.
Multiple times a week I run into an obscure term or concept in a paper that isn't defined well or doesn't seem to make sense. I ask AI and it explains it to me in a minute. Yes, it's basically exactly like asking a PhD.
And last sentences conflate a PhD with a google search or even dictionary lookup. I mean, c'mon!
And the things I'm looking up just can't be found in Google or a dictionary. It's something defined in some random paper from 1987, further developed by someone else in 1998, that the author didn't cite.
I've also seen AI just completely make up nonsense out of nowhere as recently as last week.
And I've got enough of the social side of scholarship already. Professors don't need me emailing them with questions, and I don't need to wait days for replies that may or may not come.
I mean, it's all just kind of common sense how to use an LLM.
I've mainly seen it used for getting answers without needing to or even being able to access the original source.
This is not a guarantee that the text it produces is a correct explanation of the thing you are asking about. It’s a mental trick like a psychic reading tea leaves.
It's generally pretty obvious if the explanation makes sense. And you can locate the original paper(s) as well to verify.
And you know what? My PhD friends get things wrong all the time too. I need to verify what they say as well.
"This is not a guarantee"? You're right. Nothing is a guarantee, but a lot of things are awfully helpful.
And yes, reducing everything in the world - nothing matters. Everything is relative. What even is truth, amirite?
If that’s our slogan for the future then it is hella depressing.
And they do. They stand on the fact that they save time, raise productivity, and assist in learning. That's the merit.
Demanding absolute perfection as the only measure of merit is bonkers. And if that's the standard you hold everything in your life too, you must be pretty disappointed with the world...
LLMs have not improved my productivity. When I have tried to use them, they have been a net negative. There are many other people who report a similar experience.
> This is not a guarantee that the text it produces is a correct explanation
A guarantee of correctness is perfection. I don't know else to take it.
Not all jobs or tasks are helped by LLM's. That's fine. But many are, and hugely.
You dismissed it for everyone as "a mental trick like a psychic reading tea leaves". Implying it has no value for anyone.
Your words.
That's just wrong.
Now you say it doesn't have value for you and for some other people. That's fine. But that's not what you were saying above. That's not what I was responding to.
Or an alternate timeline where a different version of LLMs were invented.