11 ms·

That's actually the hidden secret. Millions of people are using it to solve their problems quietly - something Google and other companies whose lunch they're ea

by typon 3y ago

That's actually the hidden secret. Millions of people are using it to solve their problems quietly - something Google and other companies whose lunch they're eating should be worried about rather than being worried about grand ideas like "AI Safety". Pretty much all of my non-tech family is using it in ways that I never expected: making meal plans, writing school essays, making assignments for students, writing emails to CRA (Canadian Tax Agency), fixing broken english and translation, etc.

bolanyo 3y ago
I'm quite curious about some of these applications because I don't really understand what the cognitive work is that's being offloaded. Making meal plans: what is being done here? making a list of meals to eat each day of the week? isn't this just a question of thinking what one would like to eat? why is it easier to have the meals chosen by someone else? Writing school essays: what is the point of this? Aren't school essays only written in order to learn to write, or to learn about some other topic? Writing emails to CRA: presumably you have to put all the pertinent information in the prompt. Can't you just copy that prompt into an email? (The other couple do seen to make sense to me, fair enough.)
- darkwater 3y ago
  > Making meal plans: what is being done here? making a list of meals to eat each day of the week? isn't this just a question of thinking what one would like to eat? why is it easier to have the meals chosen by someone else? Do you have children? Meal planning can be a quite tedious and frustrating task if you want to cook at home, eat healthy, eat tasty, vary the dishes and have meals that kids will accept.
  - Bootvis 3y ago
    In addition, for recipes, it’s just a better Google. If I do “Give me a concise recipe for X” it gives me one. No fluff, no ads. Just ingredients and steps. For example. I asked for pasta carbonara, concise and then even more concise. Final result: Quick Carbonara (4 servings) Ingredients: 12 oz pasta 4 eggs 1 cup cheese 8 oz bacon 4 garlic Salt, pepper Parsley (opt) Cook pasta, save water. Mix eggs, cheese. Fry bacon, garlic. Combine, mix, season. Serve. Great if you’re grocery shopping and want to make sure you don’t forget anything.
    - bolanyo 3y ago
      Parsley in carbonara?
      - inanutshellus 3y ago
        Garnish.
      - femto113 3y ago
        I wouldn't put it in carbonara, but Marcella Hazan's recipe[1] includes it and she's about as big of a "pasta sauce authority figure" as you're likely to find. [1] https://www.latimes.com/recipe/marcella-hazans-spaghetti-carbonara https://www.latimes.com/recipe/marcella-hazans-spaghetti-car...
        bolanyo 3y ago
        Why not just Google 'Marcella Hazan carbonara'? When I want a recipe I usually Google 'bbc food carbonara' - I want the site I trust rather than the one which has won the SEO race. I also might try "Carluccio carbonara" for the UK authority on pasta sauce. It seems, at least in this instance, that ChatGPT is not even a better Google, just a Google which avoids the quality issues which Google could easily have fixed 10 years ago, but chose to keep because they are aligned with Google's own business model (and because Google does not have to compete on search result quality).
    - ohgodplsno 3y ago
      Great if you want italians to get a stroke upon reading that you're putting bacon in carbonara, as well as your arteries dying at the thoughts of the sheer amount of pasta you've just made.
      - Bootvis 3y ago
        The regular prompt gives "pancetta, guanciale, or bacon". If I prompt for "traditional Italian" bacon is omotted and either guanciale or pancetta is suggested. If I ask for "European measurements" it suggests 350gr of pasta for 4 persons which seems reasonable.
  - bolanyo 3y ago
    I do have children. The thing is that I know what my children like to eat and don't like to eat, but ChatGPT does not. If I had to direct, say, a human servant who is very good at cooking, but who doesn't know my kids, to plan meals for my family, I would suggest 4-6 meals that we eat frequently, 7-10 that we eat a bit less frequently, and then maybe mention a couple of things that my kids don't like. And specific dietary requirements if we had them. I would expect that person to sort of randomly choose from the suggested meals, with the frequent ones more frequent, and then maybe try a couple of new things which don't match any of the not-likes. (And then ask us if we liked them before making them again.) But it seems that the only hard parts are coming up with the spec to give to that person (which I do), and then varying it based on feedback (which the cook would do, but which ChatGPT doesn't do). What am I missing?
    - inanutshellus 3y ago
      We tried it to get meal ideas and help manage a new diet with restrictions on calories/fat/protein. Measuring each across meals and snacks each day and verifying each ingredient is time-consuming.
      - bolanyo 3y ago
        So it's a decent replacement for .. those free magazines that you get at the supermarket?
- Matthew911 3y ago
  [dead]
dugmartin 3y ago
I'd pay for a service that let me take a few pictures of the contents of my fridge and pantry and then generate a list of recipes. Sounds like a good idea for a "ducktape AI" startup.

by typon 3y ago

bolanyo 3y ago

I'm quite curious about some of these applications because I don't really understand what the cognitive work is that's being offloaded. Making meal plans: what is being done here? making a list of meals to eat each day of the week? isn't this just a question of thinking what one would like to eat? why is it easier to have the meals chosen by someone else? Writing school essays: what is the point of this? Aren't school essays only written in order to learn to write, or to learn about some other topic? Writing emails to CRA: presumably you have to put all the pertinent information in the prompt. Can't you just copy that prompt into an email? (The other couple do seen to make sense to me, fair enough.)

darkwater 3y ago
> Making meal plans: what is being done here? making a list of meals to eat each day of the week? isn't this just a question of thinking what one would like to eat? why is it easier to have the meals chosen by someone else? Do you have children? Meal planning can be a quite tedious and frustrating task if you want to cook at home, eat healthy, eat tasty, vary the dishes and have meals that kids will accept.
- Bootvis 3y ago
  In addition, for recipes, it’s just a better Google. If I do “Give me a concise recipe for X” it gives me one. No fluff, no ads. Just ingredients and steps. For example. I asked for pasta carbonara, concise and then even more concise. Final result: Quick Carbonara (4 servings) Ingredients: 12 oz pasta 4 eggs 1 cup cheese 8 oz bacon 4 garlic Salt, pepper Parsley (opt) Cook pasta, save water. Mix eggs, cheese. Fry bacon, garlic. Combine, mix, season. Serve. Great if you’re grocery shopping and want to make sure you don’t forget anything.
  - bolanyo 3y ago
    Parsley in carbonara?
    - inanutshellus 3y ago
      Garnish.
    - femto113 3y ago
      I wouldn't put it in carbonara, but Marcella Hazan's recipe[1] includes it and she's about as big of a "pasta sauce authority figure" as you're likely to find. [1] https://www.latimes.com/recipe/marcella-hazans-spaghetti-carbonara https://www.latimes.com/recipe/marcella-hazans-spaghetti-car...
      - bolanyo 3y ago
        Why not just Google 'Marcella Hazan carbonara'? When I want a recipe I usually Google 'bbc food carbonara' - I want the site I trust rather than the one which has won the SEO race. I also might try "Carluccio carbonara" for the UK authority on pasta sauce. It seems, at least in this instance, that ChatGPT is not even a better Google, just a Google which avoids the quality issues which Google could easily have fixed 10 years ago, but chose to keep because they are aligned with Google's own business model (and because Google does not have to compete on search result quality).
  - ohgodplsno 3y ago
    Great if you want italians to get a stroke upon reading that you're putting bacon in carbonara, as well as your arteries dying at the thoughts of the sheer amount of pasta you've just made.
    - Bootvis 3y ago
      The regular prompt gives "pancetta, guanciale, or bacon". If I prompt for "traditional Italian" bacon is omotted and either guanciale or pancetta is suggested. If I ask for "European measurements" it suggests 350gr of pasta for 4 persons which seems reasonable.
- bolanyo 3y ago
  I do have children. The thing is that I know what my children like to eat and don't like to eat, but ChatGPT does not. If I had to direct, say, a human servant who is very good at cooking, but who doesn't know my kids, to plan meals for my family, I would suggest 4-6 meals that we eat frequently, 7-10 that we eat a bit less frequently, and then maybe mention a couple of things that my kids don't like. And specific dietary requirements if we had them. I would expect that person to sort of randomly choose from the suggested meals, with the frequent ones more frequent, and then maybe try a couple of new things which don't match any of the not-likes. (And then ask us if we liked them before making them again.) But it seems that the only hard parts are coming up with the spec to give to that person (which I do), and then varying it based on feedback (which the cook would do, but which ChatGPT doesn't do). What am I missing?
  - inanutshellus 3y ago
    We tried it to get meal ideas and help manage a new diet with restrictions on calories/fat/protein. Measuring each across meals and snacks each day and verifying each ingredient is time-consuming.
    - bolanyo 3y ago
      So it's a decent replacement for .. those free magazines that you get at the supermarket?
Matthew911 3y ago
[dead]

dugmartin 3y ago

I'd pay for a service that let me take a few pictures of the contents of my fridge and pantry and then generate a list of recipes. Sounds like a good idea for a "ducktape AI" startup.