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I’ve been talking with ChatGPT to fill in gaps in my general knowledge. I pick a topic that I know very little about—the Holy Roman Empire was one that I tried—

I’ve been talking with ChatGPT to fill in gaps in my general knowledge. I pick a topic that I know very little about—the Holy Roman Empire was one that I tried—and I ask ChatGPT to tell me about it. I then ask about aspects of the answer that pique my curiosity, and the conversation proceeds from there. When ChatGPT’s answers are too long or when it asks me too many questions I’m not interested in answering, I adjust the custom instructions to try to discourage it. Two of the first conversations I had with it are here: https://www.gally.net/temp/20231013gptdiscussion/index.html https://www.gally.net/temp/20231013gptdiscussion/index.html I could also learn about such topics by reading Wikipedia or other references, of course. But somehow talking interactively about them makes them more interesting and the information seems to stick with me better.

maltalex 3y ago
> I’ve been talking with ChatGPT to fill in gaps in my general knowledge. I pick a topic that I know very little about—the Holy Roman Empire was one that I tried—and I ask ChatGPT to tell me about it. This isn’t an ideal use case for AI. You have no way of telling whether you’re learning facts or plausibly sounding fiction.
- serjester 3y ago
  There’s a tradeoff between seeking perfect information and velocity. ChatGPT is right enough of the time that it’s useful (>90%). I use it the same way knowing that I might have some details incorrect. It’s also unlikely to hallucinate the same way twice so if you ask follow on questions to verify the accuracy it becomes pretty straightforward to know when it’s hallucinating.
- tkgally 3y ago
  Yes, I'm fully aware of that. I'm not using it as a search engine or to learn specific facts, which are indeed sometimes hallucinated (though less so with GPT-4 than other models). Rather I am using to explore domains of knowledge interactively. It is that exploration and interaction that make it this an intriguing learning method. It's especially useful, I think, for discussing and thinking about philosophical or controversial issues that do not have right or wrong answers.
  - jrflowers 3y ago
    > It's especially useful, I think, for discussing and thinking about philosophical or controversial issues that do not have right or wrong answers. I like the idea that there are no right or wrong answers in philosophy. I have been enjoying dissecting Schopenhauer’s thoughts on hedonistic utilitarianism with chat gpt
- Salgat 3y ago
  This is why I use chatgpt as a type of Google. It's like a stackoverflow almost; generally useful but sometimes the person is wrong, but it helps me get leads.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
    I think it works pretty well as a programming assistant for that reason, because you can, well, just run the code that it produces to verify if it's wrong or not. TBD on whether the architectural suggestions it suggests actually pay off in the long run but in my experience if you give it two solutions and ask it to weigh the pros and cons of those solutions it's pretty good at that. It's also decent at coming up with alternatives as well, but you have to prompt it to do that. It is totally happy to not consider any other alternatives unless you ask it to.
- brazz777 3y ago
  [flagged]
AlexAndScripts 3y ago
I would be terrified of "learning" falsehoods.
- wfvr 3y ago
  It's basically the same risk as learning about the roman empire from random youtubers. When I'm washing dishes and just looking for some edutainment, I'm not too worried about being misled on some random fact about an ancient civilization.

maltalex 3y ago

> I’ve been talking with ChatGPT to fill in gaps in my general knowledge. I pick a topic that I know very little about—the Holy Roman Empire was one that I tried—and I ask ChatGPT to tell me about it. This isn’t an ideal use case for AI. You have no way of telling whether you’re learning facts or plausibly sounding fiction.

serjester 3y ago
There’s a tradeoff between seeking perfect information and velocity. ChatGPT is right enough of the time that it’s useful (>90%). I use it the same way knowing that I might have some details incorrect. It’s also unlikely to hallucinate the same way twice so if you ask follow on questions to verify the accuracy it becomes pretty straightforward to know when it’s hallucinating.
tkgally 3y ago
Yes, I'm fully aware of that. I'm not using it as a search engine or to learn specific facts, which are indeed sometimes hallucinated (though less so with GPT-4 than other models). Rather I am using to explore domains of knowledge interactively. It is that exploration and interaction that make it this an intriguing learning method. It's especially useful, I think, for discussing and thinking about philosophical or controversial issues that do not have right or wrong answers.
- jrflowers 3y ago
  > It's especially useful, I think, for discussing and thinking about philosophical or controversial issues that do not have right or wrong answers. I like the idea that there are no right or wrong answers in philosophy. I have been enjoying dissecting Schopenhauer’s thoughts on hedonistic utilitarianism with chat gpt
Salgat 3y ago
This is why I use chatgpt as a type of Google. It's like a stackoverflow almost; generally useful but sometimes the person is wrong, but it helps me get leads.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
  I think it works pretty well as a programming assistant for that reason, because you can, well, just run the code that it produces to verify if it's wrong or not. TBD on whether the architectural suggestions it suggests actually pay off in the long run but in my experience if you give it two solutions and ask it to weigh the pros and cons of those solutions it's pretty good at that. It's also decent at coming up with alternatives as well, but you have to prompt it to do that. It is totally happy to not consider any other alternatives unless you ask it to.
brazz777 3y ago
[flagged]

AlexAndScripts 3y ago

I would be terrified of "learning" falsehoods.

wfvr 3y ago
It's basically the same risk as learning about the roman empire from random youtubers. When I'm washing dishes and just looking for some edutainment, I'm not too worried about being misled on some random fact about an ancient civilization.