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I think your wife's collogues are missing the forest for the trees here. This isn't going away. You can't stop it. Her university can't win an AI arms race, nor

I think your wife's collogues are missing the forest for the trees here. This isn't going away. You can't stop it. Her university can't win an AI arms race, nor should they even try to. I've already integrated ChatGPT into my workflow and not only is my boss thrilled about it, he's actively embracing it and encouraging the rest of the people at work to do it. We're discussing approaching OpenAI about enterprise pricing so everyone can have the Plus version. I'm able to take time doing the bullshit grunt work of my job and essentially outsource it to ChatGPT. Then I go in and fix everything it fucks up - not just code, but poor wording, incoherent / incongruent sentences, etc. University professors, high school teachers, middle school teachers - everyone - are all in for a rude awakening. You're going to have to get to know your students. You're going to have to scale down class sizes, because you have to now invest time in learning someone's writing style to know what's ChatGPT and what's their own voice. You're going to have to actually test for understanding, not just rote memorization. Our species is moving past that, thank God. And more importantly, we're going to see college scaled back like it should have already been. Most people are not only not college material, they don't need to be college material. The vast, vast majority of jobs in the world can be easily done without a four-year degree and with a few weeks to a few months on on-the-job training. We're long overdue to pass the buck back to companies to pay for training their workers, not dumping a $25,000 to $250,000 responsibility on would-be workers in the hopes they can stand out. ChatGPT will hopefully be a huge catalyst for this, and I think paired with crippling student loans, we will start to see a massive paradigm shift soon.

lisasays 4y ago
I've already integrated ChatGPT into my workflow And your line of work is?
neom 4y ago
I agree with you that it's here to stay, and I'm sure my wife does too... but it's not so simple. I can mostly figure out how to improve my work with modern ML, and I'm fairly tech literate... I think it's just a painful time for them. It's easy to say they're in for a rude awakening because it's obvious to us they are. However, she's a history professor who can hardly use a computer. Between dealing with bureaucracy of an inherently protectionist work environment, reading a zillion books, research, teaching, conferences, publishing, etc, etc, plus never really focusing on becoming technology literate, this is a lot to process. My wife is still young relatively to her colleagues so I think she can deal with the shift, but it doesn't negate the fact that she's (a junior) member of a team, and this conversation is happening in all departments, from architecture to philosophy to math. It's going to be interesting to see what happens.
- cbozeman 4y ago
  Although my first post may not sound like it, I am in fact quite sympathetic to your wife and her situation (although I think she'll be fine is she adopts what I'm about to post). > However, she's a history professor who can hardly use a computer. Between dealing with bureaucracy of an inherently protectionist work environment, reading a zillion books, research, teaching, conferences, publishing, etc, etc, plus never really focusing on becoming technology literate, this is a lot to process. This is no longer an option for our species. We've managed to dumb down computers to a level that people can't even figure out what operating system they're using (Windows 10/11 or macOS). That's a problem. I don't care what anyone says. They're all objectively wrong. You *need* to have some idea of how the technology that shapes your life works. Just like you don't need to be able to tear down a car, you don't need to be able to explain how ChatGPT works, but just like you understand that using the accelerator makes your car go and the brake makes your car stop, you need some base idea of what's happening with your computer and the software you use. We see this in just about every aspect of our lives. I wouldn't be able to file taxes for a multi-million dollar business with 300 employees, but I can file taxes for myself with a little bit of effort and reading (in fact, even trained professionals struggle with filing taxes, so maybe this wasn't the best example...). I think you should have your wife make an account on OpenAI, and subscribe to ChatGPT, and try it out. Sometimes I literally just talk to it when I want to learn things. I've never had to use Microsoft Outlook, ever, until I started working at my current job. I didn't know what an OST file was, or why they get fucked up so often, so instead of Googling and reading a bunch of shit, I just asked ChatGPT, "What is an Outlook OST file?" and it told me. And I went down an Outlook rabbit hole from there. And the 4.0 and 5.0 version are just going to be that much more spectacular. I think it's better for her to embrace this right now and get on the other side of this train than be caught in the tracks when it arrives at her station.
  - lisasays 4y ago
    I just asked ChatGPT, "What is an Outlook OST file?" and it told me. Wow, I'm happy for you. You realize though that the kinds of questions academic research tries to answer are a bit more nuanced than that, right? And not only that -- almost by definition -- when doing this kind of research, you don't just want to copy-pasta whatever turns up on the top of any automated search you do (whether it be through a search engine, or a chatbot). Right?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
bee_rider 4y ago
> University professors, high school teachers, middle school teachers - everyone - are all in for a rude awakening. You're going to have to get to know your students. You're going to have to scale down class sizes, because you have to now invest time in learning someone's writing style to know what's ChatGPT and what's their own voice. I’m pretty sure this is not a rude awakening. Everyone would like to work more closely with fewer students. The ones in for the rude awakening are the ones who will be paying for more instructors.
- cbozeman 4y ago
  > The ones in for the rude awakening are the ones who will be paying for more instructors. That's not going to happen. Too many free alternatives that can get the job done, and people are waking up to that. *Administrators* might have to go find a way to be productive for once... but people are fed up with the insanely high costs of higher education. Especially given what it's producing.

lisasays 4y ago

I've already integrated ChatGPT into my workflow And your line of work is?

neom 4y ago

I agree with you that it's here to stay, and I'm sure my wife does too... but it's not so simple. I can mostly figure out how to improve my work with modern ML, and I'm fairly tech literate... I think it's just a painful time for them. It's easy to say they're in for a rude awakening because it's obvious to us they are. However, she's a history professor who can hardly use a computer. Between dealing with bureaucracy of an inherently protectionist work environment, reading a zillion books, research, teaching, conferences, publishing, etc, etc, plus never really focusing on becoming technology literate, this is a lot to process. My wife is still young relatively to her colleagues so I think she can deal with the shift, but it doesn't negate the fact that she's (a junior) member of a team, and this conversation is happening in all departments, from architecture to philosophy to math. It's going to be interesting to see what happens.

cbozeman 4y ago
Although my first post may not sound like it, I am in fact quite sympathetic to your wife and her situation (although I think she'll be fine is she adopts what I'm about to post). > However, she's a history professor who can hardly use a computer. Between dealing with bureaucracy of an inherently protectionist work environment, reading a zillion books, research, teaching, conferences, publishing, etc, etc, plus never really focusing on becoming technology literate, this is a lot to process. This is no longer an option for our species. We've managed to dumb down computers to a level that people can't even figure out what operating system they're using (Windows 10/11 or macOS). That's a problem. I don't care what anyone says. They're all objectively wrong. You *need* to have some idea of how the technology that shapes your life works. Just like you don't need to be able to tear down a car, you don't need to be able to explain how ChatGPT works, but just like you understand that using the accelerator makes your car go and the brake makes your car stop, you need some base idea of what's happening with your computer and the software you use. We see this in just about every aspect of our lives. I wouldn't be able to file taxes for a multi-million dollar business with 300 employees, but I can file taxes for myself with a little bit of effort and reading (in fact, even trained professionals struggle with filing taxes, so maybe this wasn't the best example...). I think you should have your wife make an account on OpenAI, and subscribe to ChatGPT, and try it out. Sometimes I literally just talk to it when I want to learn things. I've never had to use Microsoft Outlook, ever, until I started working at my current job. I didn't know what an OST file was, or why they get fucked up so often, so instead of Googling and reading a bunch of shit, I just asked ChatGPT, "What is an Outlook OST file?" and it told me. And I went down an Outlook rabbit hole from there. And the 4.0 and 5.0 version are just going to be that much more spectacular. I think it's better for her to embrace this right now and get on the other side of this train than be caught in the tracks when it arrives at her station.
- lisasays 4y ago
  I just asked ChatGPT, "What is an Outlook OST file?" and it told me. Wow, I'm happy for you. You realize though that the kinds of questions academic research tries to answer are a bit more nuanced than that, right? And not only that -- almost by definition -- when doing this kind of research, you don't just want to copy-pasta whatever turns up on the top of any automated search you do (whether it be through a search engine, or a chatbot). Right?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

bee_rider 4y ago

> University professors, high school teachers, middle school teachers - everyone - are all in for a rude awakening. You're going to have to get to know your students. You're going to have to scale down class sizes, because you have to now invest time in learning someone's writing style to know what's ChatGPT and what's their own voice. I’m pretty sure this is not a rude awakening. Everyone would like to work more closely with fewer students. The ones in for the rude awakening are the ones who will be paying for more instructors.

cbozeman 4y ago
> The ones in for the rude awakening are the ones who will be paying for more instructors. That's not going to happen. Too many free alternatives that can get the job done, and people are waking up to that. *Administrators* might have to go find a way to be productive for once... but people are fed up with the insanely high costs of higher education. Especially given what it's producing.