I teach my writing class today. I'm supposed to talk about ChatGPT. Here's what I will say.
NEVER USE CHATGPT. YOU ARE HERE TO LEARN HOW TO WRITE ABOUT SCIENCE, YOU WILL NOT ACCOMPLISH THAT BY USING A GODDAMNED CRUTCH THAT WILL JUST MAKE SHIT UP TO FILL THE SPACE. WRITE. WRITE WITH YOUR BRAIN AND YOUR HANDS. DON'T ASK A DUMB CYBERMONKEY TO DO IT FOR YOU.
I have strong opinions on this matter.
@pzmyers I'm right there with ya!
My school asked us to do an "AI" day and plan activities to explore LLM's and such.
I sat each of my classes down and we had a serious discussion about the ethics and shortcomings of LLM's. Almost none of them were aware of how the program gathers (copyrighted) data or the immense environmental costs.
Personally, I struggle to understand why anyone would want an LLM to write for them. The point of writing is self expression!
@AlexCorby @pzmyers
> The point of writing is self expression!
That may be true for some writing, but a *vast* amount of writing doesn't contain any personal expression at all; it just needs to be accurate and descriptive (think car manuals).
That's a fair point. However, with some of the nonsense that I'm catching coming out of these programs, I'm not sure I want my car manual written by ChatGPT either.
@AlexCorby @pzmyers Oh, you definitely wouldn't, no. But an LLM model trained on technical manuals, with a low temperature setting, and fed the facts it needs to impart, could do a pretty good job of it.
The key is that LLMs are tools. Like most tools, they can be used properly to enhance a work, or be misused as a crutch.
