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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 trie

> 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]

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]