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I remember many instances in childhood where I began to realize authority figures, parents/teachers/etc., that I had been trusting to teach me the ways of life

I remember many instances in childhood where I began to realize authority figures, parents/teachers/etc., that I had been trusting to teach me the ways of life weren’t all knowing. Moments of “lies” (using your term, really just being incorrect) where the cracks began to show. I treat ChatGPT like a 90th percentile educator across many problem domains. Is it going to be wrong? Yes. Is to going to be very wrong? Yes. Is it capable of generating tangents of pure and unadulterated bullshit? Yes. But that was true of every teacher, professor, and mentor I’ve ever had. Just because my 8th grade algebra teacher wasn’t as accurate as an encyclopedia or a published textbook didn’t prevent them from filling the role I rely on ChatGPT to fill now. Edit: also, peer review isn’t a great example of a system that eliminates bs.

talldayo 2y ago
> Just because my 8th grade algebra teacher wasn’t as accurate as an encyclopedia or a published textbook didn’t prevent them from filling the role I rely on ChatGPT to fill now. Sure - but I also cross-referenced my teacher when I was in math class. You know your teacher is wrong because you're also following the steps and showing your work. When your results digress, you cross-reference the steps and determine where you went wrong. Ultimately that's what I fear people won't do with ChatGPT. When they see an equation up on the digital "whiteboard" they only know how to copy it down, not how to double-check the work. This happens already with code boilerplate, but I see it in HN comments when people have ChatGPT write them a nonsense treatise on whatever the topic-du-jour is. You really cannot "learn" much from a system that has no barriers or alarm system when it's outright fabricating things with no basis in reality.
- TheNewsIsHere 2y ago
  My view is that widespread access to and use of generalized LLMs as trusted tools for learning is problematic partly because of the serious lack of critical thinking and basic education in the US. Which itself has nothing to do with LLMs right now, but is certainly a big part of why we’re in the current situation we are in. gestures around wildly LLMs aren’t going to do much to fix that in the short term given the slop in, slop out problems. It’s just another race to the bottom.

talldayo 2y ago

> Just because my 8th grade algebra teacher wasn’t as accurate as an encyclopedia or a published textbook didn’t prevent them from filling the role I rely on ChatGPT to fill now. Sure - but I also cross-referenced my teacher when I was in math class. You know your teacher is wrong because you're also following the steps and showing your work. When your results digress, you cross-reference the steps and determine where you went wrong. Ultimately that's what I fear people won't do with ChatGPT. When they see an equation up on the digital "whiteboard" they only know how to copy it down, not how to double-check the work. This happens already with code boilerplate, but I see it in HN comments when people have ChatGPT write them a nonsense treatise on whatever the topic-du-jour is. You really cannot "learn" much from a system that has no barriers or alarm system when it's outright fabricating things with no basis in reality.

TheNewsIsHere 2y ago
My view is that widespread access to and use of generalized LLMs as trusted tools for learning is problematic partly because of the serious lack of critical thinking and basic education in the US. Which itself has nothing to do with LLMs right now, but is certainly a big part of why we’re in the current situation we are in. gestures around wildly LLMs aren’t going to do much to fix that in the short term given the slop in, slop out problems. It’s just another race to the bottom.