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Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#11

Post by basilikum »

chipgap98 wrote: post #3

Is this any different than people who believe random things they read on sketchy news sites or social media?

Yes, I think AI bots are more compelling to some people. They break the concept of judging information by its source because they obscure the source. But at the same time they are trained on a lot of reputable sources and can say a lot of very smart things, just at other times they say complete BS. But they are really good at making things sound plausible, that's essentially how they work after all.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#12

Post by fxtentacle »

Yesterday, I was praying to ChatGPT and asking for guidance on my car washing problem. Through its holy scripture, it suggested me to walk to the car wash to improve my fitness. When I arrived and found the absence of my car to be a true hindrance for washing, it occurred to me that I should have pondered the scripture more carefully to identify its true meaning.

I treat the LLM like a diety. Every sane person understands well enough that the Bible is not to be taken literally. And then when someone talks about using LLMs, I always rephrase that as prayer.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#13

Post by ddawson »

I'm going to hold them to the same standard no matter if they use crappy sources, plagiarize, or hallucinate on their own. If someone asked, when and if I am in a position where I have to tell them, I would remind them that LLMs prioritize their own confidence over correctness.

LLMs aren't a special case to me. Glue doesn't belong on pizza and you shouldn't eat one rock a day but we've been giving and getting bad advice forever. The person needs to take ownership for the output and getting it right, no matter the source, is their responsibility.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#14

Post by sodapopcan »

atomicnumber3 wrote: post #7
chipgap98 wrote: post #3

Is this any different than people who believe random things they read on sketchy news sites or social media?

Yes, somehow. I have been dealing with an awful lot of people who basically have what are theoretically logic degrees who suddenly just take LLMs at face value, or quote them to me like that actually means anything. People I formerly thought were sane.

I don't mean to put words in your mouth but from what I've seen, in person but mostly online, but the "problem" (and I put that in quotes because I don't even know what to call it... it seems deeper than a mere "problem") is that they quote them as if they are autonomous, sentient beings.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#15

Post by PaulKeeble »

Its everywhere now its becoming a real problem in every corner of the internet and in the real world. People are using hallucinated legal cases in lawsuits, they are generating images to create fake events, they are using AI to write their CVS and just about everything you can imagine. People are having to wade through all this slop professionally, calling it out and pointing out the mistakes doesn't seem to help, the people using this stuff believe the AI is correct no matter what you say or do.

Like most things that go mainstream it will take a good while before people understand, by which point they will have learnt a lot of things that aren't true and they will never let them go. We might get a healthy use of current AI at some point in the future or if the product drastically improves.

All you can do now is hold them to the same standard you normally would, if you catch them lying whether an AI did it or not its their responsibility and you treat them accordingly.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#16

Post by ares623 »

chipgap98 wrote: post #3

Is this any different than people who believe random things they read on sketchy news sites or social media?

Absolutely. These things are marketed from virtually everyone, from people that are historically considered experts and/or authoritative, as such.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#18

Post by ggm »

I have a feeling this is like telling people "don't touch a live wire" and the more direct experiental "I won't touch a live wire again" lesson: People need to experience being hallucinated at, within their comprehension, and at best can be told about Gell-Mann Amnesia.

I doubt you can stop them from asking machines for answers. What you can do is aide them to learn how to distrust the answers competently, but outside their field of knowledge, applying skepticism is hard.

The irony of Gell-Mann Amnesia is that Michael Chrichton, who is said to have named it, suffered from it badly: Wrote well within his field, misapplied sciences to write well outside it, and said things which were indefensible.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?

#20

Post by Marciplan »

ddawson wrote: post #13

I'm going to hold them to the same standard no matter if they use crappy sources, plagiarize, or hallucinate on their own. If someone asked, when and if I am in a position where I have to tell them, I would remind them that LLMs prioritize their own confidence over correctness. LLMs aren't a special case to me. Glue doesn't belong on pizza and you shouldn't eat one rock a day but we've been giving and getting bad adv…

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