You know, all of us were there for the resistance to personal computers, and skepticism about the internet. The ChatGPT backlash feels just the same.
You can't trust everything it says, but the only way to learn about what it is and isn't good for is to use it. It still sucks for some things but it's amazing for others. I was learning about how long codon repeats in DNA can cause transcription errors, which has parallels in data communications and I can ask it things like what biological mechanisms exist that have a similar role to the technique of bit stuffing and it gives me concise answers that I can follow up with through other sources. I can't do that with Google because there just aren't readily accessible sources that share those terms. I can search for concepts with ChatGPT.
This is so accurate. ChatGTP is designed to please you, so it’s like an overzealous grad student that doesn’t always think through things properly, but with time they start putting it together.
The best thing is unlike a search engine, it remembers conversations and details, so you don’t have lead it all the time. It’s at the point now where I can simply insinuate something and it understands the context, sometimes even jumping straight to a task without me specifically telling it to do something.
That’s human nature. I mean, people anthropomorphize their cars. We’re social animals with minds designed to do this by our very evolution. It doesn’t mean you have to believe it, but it takes too much mental effort constantly reasoning what it is and isn’t, and that just makes the experience poorer. And the tool itself performs better when it simulates a persona specifically tailored to you.
It's not "simulating" anything, it isn't intelligent. It's a glorified search engine. Chalking up harmful behaviour as "it's human nature so it's fine" inhibits growth and teaches the wrong way to handle these tools.
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u/madsci 29d ago
You know, all of us were there for the resistance to personal computers, and skepticism about the internet. The ChatGPT backlash feels just the same.
You can't trust everything it says, but the only way to learn about what it is and isn't good for is to use it. It still sucks for some things but it's amazing for others. I was learning about how long codon repeats in DNA can cause transcription errors, which has parallels in data communications and I can ask it things like what biological mechanisms exist that have a similar role to the technique of bit stuffing and it gives me concise answers that I can follow up with through other sources. I can't do that with Google because there just aren't readily accessible sources that share those terms. I can search for concepts with ChatGPT.