4 ms·

Weirdly, I heard of some genuine use from a family in a pub the other day. Two of the kids were university/college age, talking to their parents about it. The

by nlnn 4y ago

Weirdly, I heard of some genuine use from a family in a pub the other day. Two of the kids were university/college age, talking to their parents about it. They were using one of the AI models daily for things like: recipe ideas for food they had in the house, scheduling daily activities, bouncing ideas off for essays, and asking for gift ideas. They understood it wasn't much good for facts, but liked the conversational interface as a way to give them ideas or jumping off points for things.

kmill 4y ago
I've been using ChatGPT/GPT-3 as a French tutor, to answer questions about different ways to say things, formally or informally. It's not always accurate, but still I learn from it. Amusingly, there's a mildly rude expression that means "I don't care," and ChatGPT's strong aversion to swearing biased it toward completely fabricating a word-for-word translation. It insisted that the verb was a conjugation of something innocuous, and when I pointed out that that verb doesn't conjugate that way, it both agreed with me and continued insisting. It seems to have a pretty solid grasp of language in general (so long as you don't need any hard logic), and it's a fun tool to come up with ideas you personally never had before. This was a little experiment the other day; it's delightful how many silly (yet justified) reasons why you can't walk to Hawaii it came up with. But what do you expect from someone who's only learned about the world by reading the Internet? > By "unsummarizing" we mean to take some text and expand upon it at length, using fancy words, extra facts, anecdotes, and interesting observations. Your goal is to unsummarize the following text as much as possible. > Text to unsummarize: What do you mean I can't walk to Hawaii? (GPT-3 follows) > You may be surprised to learn that it is impossible to walk to the Hawaiian Islands from anywhere on the mainland United States. Though the Hawaiian Islands are located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and are roughly 2,400 miles away from the nearest point on the mainland, it is not possible to walk there due to the vast expanse of ocean between them. Even the most dedicated and determined walker would be unable to traverse the depths of the Pacific. The nearest point of land to the Hawaiian Islands is the Johnston Atoll, which is located approximately 1,400 miles away. That is to say, it is not feasible to traverse the 1,000 miles of open ocean between Johnston Atoll and the Hawaiian Islands by foot. > The Hawaiian Islands were formed as a result of volcanic activity, and the chain of islands were formed over millions of years. This activity is responsible for creating the immense walls of water that separate the islands from the mainland. The Pacific is one of the deepest, widest oceans on the planet, and its depths are not suitable for walking. The bottom of the ocean is filled with a variety of topographical features, such as trenches, ridges, and seamounts, which make it a difficult environment for walking. Additionally, the ocean is filled with a variety of natural hazards, such as hazardous currents, extreme temperatures, sharks, and other dangerous marine life. All of these factors make walking to the Hawaiian Islands not only difficult, but also impossible.
- jamiek88 4y ago
  >Even the most dedicated and determined walker would be unable to traverse the depths of the Pacific > Pacific is one of the deepest, widest oceans on the planet, and its depths are not suitable for walking I love that. Almost a dry humor.
  - function_seven 4y ago
    I loved: > [The volcanic] activity is responsible for creating the immense walls of water that separate the islands from the mainland. In some sense, that's a true statement, right? The volcanic activity didn't create the water itself, but the "wall-like" nature of that water does depend on the islands jutting out above the surface. Otherwise there would be no "immense walls" to refer to.
layer8 4y ago
> scheduling daily activities Can you elaborate on that?
- nlnn 4y ago
  This was from an overheard conversation, so not 100% sure myself. It sounded like he was giving it a list of activities he wanted to achieve within a certain time window (going for a jog, studying for exams, coursework, etc.), and asking it to write a schedule for him. He then said he asked it to tweak it in a few ways (e.g. more time on study, a 5 minute break between activities, etc.). Then he'd print it out and pin to his desk.
asdff 4y ago
I guess my adversion to it is that there is always the side eye you have to give it. its not a reliable source of information, so if you have to check it against another source anyhow all the time, whats the point of bothering with it to begin with? sometimes its easier to have some boring database search tool, or to talk to someone directly.
- nlnn 4y ago
  Yeah, same for me. I sounds like the uses they'd found for it didn't really involve expecting reliable information, more just as an initial source of ideas with a nice conversational interface.
nlnn 4y ago
Two other uses cases I forgot I'd heard one of the students mention: 1) drafting emails to people, 2) checking if he'd forgotten any key aspects in coursework essays. For 2), he said that after writing an essay, he'd ask the GPT model something like "I've written an essay on X, and talked about A, B, and C. Are there any other important factors I've forgotten to discuss?". Then use that as the basis for more research. From the sounds of it, he was treating the model more like a colleague he could bounce ideas off, not something to be treated as infallible (much like another student I guess).

by nlnn 4y ago

kmill 4y ago

I've been using ChatGPT/GPT-3 as a French tutor, to answer questions about different ways to say things, formally or informally. It's not always accurate, but still I learn from it. Amusingly, there's a mildly rude expression that means "I don't care," and ChatGPT's strong aversion to swearing biased it toward completely fabricating a word-for-word translation. It insisted that the verb was a conjugation of something innocuous, and when I pointed out that that verb doesn't conjugate that way, it both agreed with me and continued insisting. It seems to have a pretty solid grasp of language in general (so long as you don't need any hard logic), and it's a fun tool to come up with ideas you personally never had before. This was a little experiment the other day; it's delightful how many silly (yet justified) reasons why you can't walk to Hawaii it came up with. But what do you expect from someone who's only learned about the world by reading the Internet? > By "unsummarizing" we mean to take some text and expand upon it at length, using fancy words, extra facts, anecdotes, and interesting observations. Your goal is to unsummarize the following text as much as possible. > Text to unsummarize: What do you mean I can't walk to Hawaii? (GPT-3 follows) > You may be surprised to learn that it is impossible to walk to the Hawaiian Islands from anywhere on the mainland United States. Though the Hawaiian Islands are located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and are roughly 2,400 miles away from the nearest point on the mainland, it is not possible to walk there due to the vast expanse of ocean between them. Even the most dedicated and determined walker would be unable to traverse the depths of the Pacific. The nearest point of land to the Hawaiian Islands is the Johnston Atoll, which is located approximately 1,400 miles away. That is to say, it is not feasible to traverse the 1,000 miles of open ocean between Johnston Atoll and the Hawaiian Islands by foot. > The Hawaiian Islands were formed as a result of volcanic activity, and the chain of islands were formed over millions of years. This activity is responsible for creating the immense walls of water that separate the islands from the mainland. The Pacific is one of the deepest, widest oceans on the planet, and its depths are not suitable for walking. The bottom of the ocean is filled with a variety of topographical features, such as trenches, ridges, and seamounts, which make it a difficult environment for walking. Additionally, the ocean is filled with a variety of natural hazards, such as hazardous currents, extreme temperatures, sharks, and other dangerous marine life. All of these factors make walking to the Hawaiian Islands not only difficult, but also impossible.

jamiek88 4y ago
>Even the most dedicated and determined walker would be unable to traverse the depths of the Pacific > Pacific is one of the deepest, widest oceans on the planet, and its depths are not suitable for walking I love that. Almost a dry humor.
- function_seven 4y ago
  I loved: > [The volcanic] activity is responsible for creating the immense walls of water that separate the islands from the mainland. In some sense, that's a true statement, right? The volcanic activity didn't create the water itself, but the "wall-like" nature of that water does depend on the islands jutting out above the surface. Otherwise there would be no "immense walls" to refer to.

layer8 4y ago

> scheduling daily activities Can you elaborate on that?

nlnn 4y ago
This was from an overheard conversation, so not 100% sure myself. It sounded like he was giving it a list of activities he wanted to achieve within a certain time window (going for a jog, studying for exams, coursework, etc.), and asking it to write a schedule for him. He then said he asked it to tweak it in a few ways (e.g. more time on study, a 5 minute break between activities, etc.). Then he'd print it out and pin to his desk.

asdff 4y ago

I guess my adversion to it is that there is always the side eye you have to give it. its not a reliable source of information, so if you have to check it against another source anyhow all the time, whats the point of bothering with it to begin with? sometimes its easier to have some boring database search tool, or to talk to someone directly.

nlnn 4y ago
Yeah, same for me. I sounds like the uses they'd found for it didn't really involve expecting reliable information, more just as an initial source of ideas with a nice conversational interface.

nlnn 4y ago

Two other uses cases I forgot I'd heard one of the students mention: 1) drafting emails to people, 2) checking if he'd forgotten any key aspects in coursework essays. For 2), he said that after writing an essay, he'd ask the GPT model something like "I've written an essay on X, and talked about A, B, and C. Are there any other important factors I've forgotten to discuss?". Then use that as the basis for more research. From the sounds of it, he was treating the model more like a colleague he could bounce ideas off, not something to be treated as infallible (much like another student I guess).