it’s getting to the point where I notice people say it a lot, especially IRL now for whatever reason recently.
And for clarity I’m not in research or anything, so these people just mean ‘LLM/image gen’, not utilities like OCR or (usually not) transcription.
Some have argued it’s just more efficient (which I can kind of get), while others think you’re actively hindering your intelligence somehow.
On the first point:
I’ve tried it occasionally to see how it compares to my own skill, and while it produces a functional result, it’s always very derivative work to the point where you can find things with the exact same names of other ‘public’ (but not libre) works, and often isn’t the ideal solution to what it targets. So I can see how you can get things out of it, but it never felt really that profound to me.
But for the second… isn’t this supposed to be the tool for people to do things they aren’t experienced in? If anything, you probably need to be able to understand how to write pertaining to the task so the token probabilities are biased toward writing from that area.
And even then, if all you end up doing is prompting AI, then wouldn’t you ultimately serve no purpose outside of being glorified QA?
I guess I’m trying to figure out what exactly non-users would be ‘falling behind’ in that affects them more than those who use AI?
As I understand it there’s a distinction between analytical AI (the stuff that can help identify tumors and such), and LLMs which are now effectively the catchall “AI” term — your ChatGPTs and Claudes. I honestly have no problem with machine learning if it can be applied, as aforementioned. in research and validated by researchers to improve medical outcomes. That’s a wonderful thing.
On the other hand, I used ChatGPT 3.5(?) for about a day when it first went public. I’m sure the evangelists will scream at me about how much it’s improved, how it brings us closer to God or some shit, etc., but I quickly realized its core issues from a rhetorical standpoint and still stand by my assessment. It knows how to say things, and pretty well. It sort of knows what to say, only as far as you can prompt it correctly. It has no fucking idea why it says what it says, short of what it was told to say by the user and constructing plausible sentences.
I see it as these three prongs, just ramping up with each new release. Slap some more glitter on it. Call it “general intelligence” now. Enjoy your own brainrot echoing from your phone. Let’s circle back.