3 ms·

I wrote significant parts of an academic paper today with gpt3. It isn’t a novelty. I get better and better at working with it to produce amazing things!

MattPalmer1086 4y ago
Do you mean you actually wrote parts of a real paper you are writing, or just produced convincing text that reads like one? If the former, how do you use it to do that, and what are the limitations?
- conductr 4y ago
  Sorry had to lol “are you cheating or not cheating, cuz I’m definitely interested in cheating”
  - MattPalmer1086 4y ago
    Heh, I guess it could read like that. I just can't see how GPT3 could be used to help with a genuine paper (like copilot does for code). If it's just cheating, that's not very interesting.
    - Swizec 4y ago
      An idea I've had while writing books and how GPT3 could help. The interesting/fun bit is creating the insight. Like 5 bullet points. Then you need a good anecdote to drive the point home. Another 5 bullet points. Expanding those 10 bullet points into prose is the boring part. GPT3 could do that and create a vomit draft for you. Then you can polish the draft into good prose, which again is the fun part.
    - conductr 4y ago
      Just based on what I’ve seen I feel like you could feed it the insightful bits that were original and it could word it eloquently. It would work better/worse based on subject.
- dr_dshiv 4y ago
  First, I put my title and abstract in, then have it generate the introduction. That worked weirdly well. Then, I had a few ideas I was having trouble writing, and so I'd give a prompt and then take what it gave me, improve it, and use it as a prompt again. It really generated some excellent material. However, if you ask for quotes with citations, I think it just makes the shit up. Careful with dealing with a non truthful oracle. But, with critical thinking, playfulness and a strong handle on the intellectual material, it can be a great writing assistant!
  - MattPalmer1086 4y ago
    Interesting, thanks! I tend to get hung up on writing papers. I go round and round, and it takes me ages to get to the actual thing I want to write about. I may give that a go!
    - dr_dshiv 4y ago
      Yeah, it’s like you get to the “edit” stage much faster! And, you can get a lot of “obvious” ideas that you might not have considered. Also, the text tends to be looser and less harmony than my typical academic writing.
diwank 4y ago
It is definitely a very interesting application. It could be especially useful for identifying and finding missing citations (using a retrieval transformer perhaps). A well designed system could discourage and flag potential plagiarism in the generated content.

MattPalmer1086 4y ago

Do you mean you actually wrote parts of a real paper you are writing, or just produced convincing text that reads like one? If the former, how do you use it to do that, and what are the limitations?

conductr 4y ago
Sorry had to lol “are you cheating or not cheating, cuz I’m definitely interested in cheating”
- MattPalmer1086 4y ago
  Heh, I guess it could read like that. I just can't see how GPT3 could be used to help with a genuine paper (like copilot does for code). If it's just cheating, that's not very interesting.
  - Swizec 4y ago
    An idea I've had while writing books and how GPT3 could help. The interesting/fun bit is creating the insight. Like 5 bullet points. Then you need a good anecdote to drive the point home. Another 5 bullet points. Expanding those 10 bullet points into prose is the boring part. GPT3 could do that and create a vomit draft for you. Then you can polish the draft into good prose, which again is the fun part.
  - conductr 4y ago
    Just based on what I’ve seen I feel like you could feed it the insightful bits that were original and it could word it eloquently. It would work better/worse based on subject.
dr_dshiv 4y ago
First, I put my title and abstract in, then have it generate the introduction. That worked weirdly well. Then, I had a few ideas I was having trouble writing, and so I'd give a prompt and then take what it gave me, improve it, and use it as a prompt again. It really generated some excellent material. However, if you ask for quotes with citations, I think it just makes the shit up. Careful with dealing with a non truthful oracle. But, with critical thinking, playfulness and a strong handle on the intellectual material, it can be a great writing assistant!
- MattPalmer1086 4y ago
  Interesting, thanks! I tend to get hung up on writing papers. I go round and round, and it takes me ages to get to the actual thing I want to write about. I may give that a go!
  - dr_dshiv 4y ago
    Yeah, it’s like you get to the “edit” stage much faster! And, you can get a lot of “obvious” ideas that you might not have considered. Also, the text tends to be looser and less harmony than my typical academic writing.

diwank 4y ago

It is definitely a very interesting application. It could be especially useful for identifying and finding missing citations (using a retrieval transformer perhaps). A well designed system could discourage and flag potential plagiarism in the generated content.