3 ms·

That's a fairer comparison that I read it as. I'd say they're more like a pharmacy, usually dispensing medicine. But we don't really know how half the medicin

by gAI 3y ago

That's a fairer comparison that I read it as. I'd say they're more like a pharmacy, usually dispensing medicine. But we don't really know how half the medicine works, and sometimes it hurts people.

rideontime 3y ago
Would you shop at such a pharmacy? I wouldn’t and I don’t.
- gAI 3y ago
  That accurately describes all pharmacies. Medicine is hard.
  - rideontime 3y ago
    Oh, please. Have you never read the little insert that's packed in with all prescription medicine? Whether the mechanism is fully understood or not, it's at least been studied and demonstrated to have some benefit, and has _specific_ warnings about the ways it's been seen to harm people and how often. Unless you're referring to the scam-filled supplements aisle, in which case I agree wholeheartedly with your comparison.
- gAI 3y ago
  I was thinking more about SSRI's, which make up over half (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450889/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450889/) of US pharmacy orders. While we do know that they work for some people, they only work for 20% of people (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361016/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361016/). They also come with common side effects that can lower quality of life (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2719451/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2719451/). And we do not understand how they work in the first place (https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/how-antidepressants-work-is-a-mystery-scientists-still-dont-understand https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/how-antidepressants-...). Plenty of parallels with the common lamentations over generative AI.
  - rideontime 3y ago
    Your own links demonstrate the fundamental difference. The side effects have been studied and can be identified. I'm at this very moment taking a break from a medication because I was able to recognize a severe side effect that came up. I can't recognize when an LLM has generated a nonsensical piece of technical documentation; if I could, I wouldn't need to use it in the first place.
    - gAI 3y ago
      The side effects of incompatible code are similar to the side effects of incompatible medication. Thanks to the identified undesirable effects, you usually identify the problem and resolve the issue with other resources. Occasionally the problem is more severe or persists unidentified. We should definitely be working to minimize these effects and prevent them where possible, but that doesn’t mean we stop trying/utilizing medicine. These are honestly just all the same arguments used against Wikipedia.
      - rideontime 3y ago
        - “Incompatible code”? What does this even mean? “Incompatible” with what? - Have you actually read the examples in the linked github issue? What “undesirable effect” are you able to identify when an LLM tells you that a JS function simply doesn’t exist? Or when something fails subtly enough that the code you wrote based on the LLM’s advice isn’t the obvious culprit? Do you do much debugging? - Wikipedia requires references, while this LLM directly contradicts the one data source that it’s meant to help explain. Failing to see the comparison.
        gAI 3y ago
        If a medication is incompatible with a person's specific biology, they don’t see improvement (or their health declines). If a function is described incorrectly, you won’t see improved functionality (or you’ll see bugs). It was incompatible with the syntax/compiler/the rest of the code. Though this one won't, LLMs will cite references if asked. They’ll also provide step-by-step rationalization (though they don’t think in that way). Just like Wikipedia, you still have to check those references to verify.

by gAI 3y ago

That's a fairer comparison that I read it as. I'd say they're more like a pharmacy, usually dispensing medicine. But we don't really know how half the medicine works, and sometimes it hurts people.

rideontime 3y ago

Would you shop at such a pharmacy? I wouldn’t and I don’t.

gAI 3y ago
That accurately describes all pharmacies. Medicine is hard.
- rideontime 3y ago
  Oh, please. Have you never read the little insert that's packed in with all prescription medicine? Whether the mechanism is fully understood or not, it's at least been studied and demonstrated to have some benefit, and has _specific_ warnings about the ways it's been seen to harm people and how often. Unless you're referring to the scam-filled supplements aisle, in which case I agree wholeheartedly with your comparison.
gAI 3y ago
I was thinking more about SSRI's, which make up over half (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450889/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450889/) of US pharmacy orders. While we do know that they work for some people, they only work for 20% of people (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361016/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361016/). They also come with common side effects that can lower quality of life (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2719451/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2719451/). And we do not understand how they work in the first place (https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/how-antidepressants-work-is-a-mystery-scientists-still-dont-understand https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/how-antidepressants-...). Plenty of parallels with the common lamentations over generative AI.
- rideontime 3y ago
  Your own links demonstrate the fundamental difference. The side effects have been studied and can be identified. I'm at this very moment taking a break from a medication because I was able to recognize a severe side effect that came up. I can't recognize when an LLM has generated a nonsensical piece of technical documentation; if I could, I wouldn't need to use it in the first place.
  - gAI 3y ago
    The side effects of incompatible code are similar to the side effects of incompatible medication. Thanks to the identified undesirable effects, you usually identify the problem and resolve the issue with other resources. Occasionally the problem is more severe or persists unidentified. We should definitely be working to minimize these effects and prevent them where possible, but that doesn’t mean we stop trying/utilizing medicine. These are honestly just all the same arguments used against Wikipedia.
    - rideontime 3y ago
      - “Incompatible code”? What does this even mean? “Incompatible” with what? - Have you actually read the examples in the linked github issue? What “undesirable effect” are you able to identify when an LLM tells you that a JS function simply doesn’t exist? Or when something fails subtly enough that the code you wrote based on the LLM’s advice isn’t the obvious culprit? Do you do much debugging? - Wikipedia requires references, while this LLM directly contradicts the one data source that it’s meant to help explain. Failing to see the comparison.
      - gAI 3y ago
        If a medication is incompatible with a person's specific biology, they don’t see improvement (or their health declines). If a function is described incorrectly, you won’t see improved functionality (or you’ll see bugs). It was incompatible with the syntax/compiler/the rest of the code. Though this one won't, LLMs will cite references if asked. They’ll also provide step-by-step rationalization (though they don’t think in that way). Just like Wikipedia, you still have to check those references to verify.