3 ms·
Amusingly, the article talks about "improving equity in science". The linked article, "AI tools can improve equity in science" has a link to Google Scholar.[1]
by Animats 1y ago
Amusingly, the article talks about "improving equity in science". The linked article, "AI tools can improve equity in science" has a link to Google Scholar.[1] The summary there begins "The global space industry is growing rapidly—the number of satellites in orbit is expected to increase from 9000 today to over 60,000 by 2030 . In addition, it is estimated that more than 100 trillion untracked pieces of old satellites ...". That's because Google Scholar hit a paywall and treated the following unrelated letter as the content.
So it looks like the authors used some tool to generate plausible citation links, which they did not read before publishing.
They did some real work. Here's their list of "excess style words", ones whose frequency has increased substantially since LLMs:
accentuates, acknowledges, acknowledging, addresses, adept, adhered, adhering,
advancement, advancements, advancing, advocates, advocating, affirming, afflicted,
aiding, akin, align, aligning, aligns, alongside, amidst, assessments, attains,
attributed, augmenting, avenue, avenues, bolster, bolstered, bolstering, broader,
burgeoning, capabilities, capitalizing, categorized, categorizes, categorizing,
combating, commendable, compelling, complicates, complicating, comprehending, comprising,
consequently, consolidates, contributing, conversely, correlating, crafted, crafting,
culminating, customizing, delineates, delve, delved, delves, delving, demonstrating,
dependability, dependable, detailing, detrimentally, diminishes, diminishing, discern,
discerned, discernible, discerning, displaying, disrupts, distinctions, distinctive,
elevate, elevates, elevating, elucidate, elucidates, elucidating, embracing, emerges,
emphasises, emphasising, emphasize, emphasizes, emphasizing, employing, employs,
empowers, emulating, emulation, enabling, encapsulates, encompass, encompassed,
encompasses, encompassing, endeavors, endeavours, enduring, enhancements, enhances,
ensuring, equipping, escalating, evaluates, evolving, exacerbating, examines,
exceeding, excels, exceptional, exceptionally, exerting, exhibiting, exhibits, expedite,
expediting, exploration, explores, facilitated, facilitates, facilitating, featuring,
formidable, fostering, fosters, foundational, furnish, garnered, garnering, gauged,
grappling, groundbreaking, groundwork, harness, harnesses, harnessing, heighten,
heightened, hinder, hinges, hinting, hold, holds, illuminates, illuminating, imbalances,
impacting, impede, impeding, imperative, impressive, inadequately, incorporates,
incorporating, influencing, inherent, initially, innovative, inquiries, integrates,
integrating, integration, interconnectedness, interplay, intricacies, intricate,
intricately, introduces, invaluable, investigates, involves, juxtaposed, leverages,
leveraging, maintaining, merges, methodologies, meticulous, meticulously, multifaceted,
necessitate, necessitates, necessitating, necessity, notable, noteworthy, nuanced,
nuances, offering, optimizing, orchestrating, outlines, overlook, overlooking, paving,
persist, pinpoint, pinpointed, pinpointing, pioneering, pioneers, pivotal, poised,
pose, posed, poses, posing, predominantly, preserving, pressing, promise, pronounced,
propelling, realm, realms, recognizing, refine, refines, refining, remarkable, renowned,
revealing, reveals, revolutionize, revolutionizing, revolves, scrutinize, scrutinized,
scrutinizing, seamless, seamlessly, seeks, serves, serving, shaping, shedding,
showcased, showcases, showcasing, signifying, solidify, spanned, spanning, spurred,
stands, stemming, strategically, streamline, streamlined, streamlines, streamlining,
struggle, substantiated, substantiates, surged, surmount, surpass, surpassed, surpasses,
surpassing, swift, swiftly, thorough, transformative, typically, ultimately, uncharted,
uncovering, underexplored, underscore, underscored, underscores, underscoring,
unexplored, unlocking, unparalleled, unraveling, unveil, unveiled, unveiling, unveils,
uphold, upholding, urging, utilizes, varying, versatility, warranting, yielding.
That's the vocabulary of business hype. Those are words that appear frequently in company press releases,
and are copied into business publications by cut-and-paste journalists.
LLMs asked to polish scientific material will use that vocabulary, even in scientific writing.
If you trained an LLM on scientific publications, you'd get more scientific jargon, probably misused.
[1] https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=AI+tools+can+improve+equity+in+science&author=V.+Berdejo-Espinola&author=T.+Amano&publication_year=2023&journal=Science&pages=991&doi=10.1126%2Fscience.adg9714&pmid=36893248 https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=AI+tools+can...
- userbinator 1y ago"improving equity" as in "dumbing down everyone", indeed that's what LLMs have done.
- leakycap 1y agoGood tools can be used incorrectly. I wouldn't want to go back to a world without LLMs, but I wish people were more thoughtful in how we use them. Right now, we're seeing AI being slapped on everything like every other trend in the past. When things settle after this upheaval, whether in 20 years or 100, I'd bet AI will still be here and be more useful than ever.
- aerostable_slug 1y agoI think the argument is the average person might be less useful than ever without the crutch of AI. A nation of useless dolts unable to compose a sentence or figure a simple sum in their head, dependent on their assistants & their personalized feed of slop. Some of this is simple progress and fine, some of it is terrifying to comprehend.
- leakycap 1y agoI understand the line of thinking, I've considered it - but how is it different than every other "the sky is falling" fear-mongering about the future during previous revolutionary technologies? People in general don't shoe horses anymore, but we also do not need to know how to. Same with crank engine cars. Same with manual transmissions in the USA. That's just the changes in personal transport in a few generations.
- foxglacier 1y agoWriting and doing science are separate skills. It limits what people can do if we require the same skills to exist in the same person. That doesn't mean we have useless dolts but that we have people giving more of their time and mental effort to their specialty and capable people who were excluded because they couldn't write can have access to it.