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Translating blog posts with GPT-4, or: on hope and fear

antirez.com

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Re: Translating blog posts with GPT-4, or: on hope and fear

#41

Post by kromem »

Grimblewald wrote: post #35
jiggawatts wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the freakish thing was having GPT-4 complete the prefix of a script, which was mostly a doc-comment and the inputs, written in my style. The completed body of the script was also in my style, even though I had not given GPT any actual "code" in the prompt. It somehow had learned that people that write the preamble "just so" also write script logic in a certain specific way, and it could emulate that.

One of the bigger difficulties with coming to terms with LLMs is that we are either far simpler and easy to model than we once thought, or LLMs are vastly more complex than we comprehend. I am not sure I like either.

The most probable answer is that it's not a binary either/or but a little of both.

(And escaping binary thinking is something humans need to do a better job with in general.)

Re: Translating blog posts with GPT-4, or: on hope and fear

#42

Post by LeoPanthera »

nanolith wrote: post #37
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #21

I agree with Antirez on the fear: I call this the "Google Maps effect", the more you use Google Maps, the less you learn about city streets, etc. By the way, I am Italian too; I lived in the US (SF) for ~10 years, and I speak (I think) a pretty good English. More than 20 years ago I wrote a novel, Nonovvio, in Italian. A couple of months ago I decided to translate it to English, using GPT-4. Here you can find both th…

My parents bought me a GPS unit when I first moved away. While using it was convenient, I discovered that I did not actually learn to orient myself with respect to that city. It wasn't until my GPS unit was stolen and I had to go at it on my own that my mental map "snapped" into place. That is one reason why I'm hesitant to use LLMs to the extent that so many have. If we don't use certain skills, we lose them. I lear…

I always have my GPS map set to "North up", and I honestly think this has caused me to learn the layout of where I live faster. Knowing which direction you are traveling really helps.

Re: Translating blog posts with GPT-4, or: on hope and fear

#44

Post by famouswaffles »

neom wrote: post #10

It's insane to me much how much better GPT-4 is than Papago at Korean, and Papago was the gold standard for Korean translation for quite some time. It also performs much better than DeepL in Korean.

Example, for the curious - https://imgur.com/a/XtH7dZt

Re: Translating blog posts with GPT-4, or: on hope and fear

#45

Post by boredhedgehog »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #21

I agree with Antirez on the fear: I call this the "Google Maps effect", the more you use Google Maps, the less you learn about city streets, etc. By the way, I am Italian too; I lived in the US (SF) for ~10 years, and I speak (I think) a pretty good English. More than 20 years ago I wrote a novel, Nonovvio, in Italian. A couple of months ago I decided to translate it to English, using GPT-4. Here you can find both th…

> I call this the "Google Maps effect", the more you use Google Maps, the less you learn about city streets, etc.

I call it the "pocket lighter effect". The more you rely on pocket lighters, the less you learn about kindling and fires. But for some reason, people don't fear this development.

Re: Translating blog posts with GPT-4, or: on hope and fear

#46

Post by ssl-3 »

leumon wrote: post #32
iCarrot wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try telling GPT-4 that the translation is bad, and ask it to proofread the result for a more natural French

I actually did a bit of research and found this prompt: Please translate the user message from {src} to {tgt}. Make the translation sound as natural as possible. This actually gives much better results, and now I think I actually changed my mind and like GPT4 better.

I find pleasantries like "please" are wasted on bots like GPT4. Remember, it's a machine -- not a human: It doesn't get upset if it doesn't hear "please," "thank you," and "atta-boy".

It just needs some commands to follow.

Something like: "Fluently translate this text, from {here} to {there}, while preserving details" seems to be fine for me.

If the style then needs tweaked, then I edit the original command and tweak it to have it start anew: "Fluently translate this text as a peasant baker from Rhode Island in 1810, from {here} to {there}, while preserving details"

Re: Translating blog posts with GPT-4, or: on hope and fear

#47

Post by shaneoh »

nanolith wrote: post #37
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #21

I agree with Antirez on the fear: I call this the "Google Maps effect", the more you use Google Maps, the less you learn about city streets, etc. By the way, I am Italian too; I lived in the US (SF) for ~10 years, and I speak (I think) a pretty good English. More than 20 years ago I wrote a novel, Nonovvio, in Italian. A couple of months ago I decided to translate it to English, using GPT-4. Here you can find both th…

My parents bought me a GPS unit when I first moved away. While using it was convenient, I discovered that I did not actually learn to orient myself with respect to that city. It wasn't until my GPS unit was stolen and I had to go at it on my own that my mental map "snapped" into place. That is one reason why I'm hesitant to use LLMs to the extent that so many have. If we don't use certain skills, we lose them. I lear…

How did you get your French back up to snuff?

Re: Translating blog posts with GPT-4, or: on hope and fear

#49

Post by sdflhasjd »

boredhedgehog wrote: post #45
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #21

I agree with Antirez on the fear: I call this the "Google Maps effect", the more you use Google Maps, the less you learn about city streets, etc. By the way, I am Italian too; I lived in the US (SF) for ~10 years, and I speak (I think) a pretty good English. More than 20 years ago I wrote a novel, Nonovvio, in Italian. A couple of months ago I decided to translate it to English, using GPT-4. Here you can find both th…

> I call this the "Google Maps effect", the more you use Google Maps, the less you learn about city streets, etc. I call it the "pocket lighter effect". The more you rely on pocket lighters, the less you learn about kindling and fires. But for some reason, people don't fear this development.

You don't have to pay rent to big tech to use a lighter.

Re: Translating blog posts with GPT-4, or: on hope and fear

#50

Post by bandergirl »

ChatGTP wrote: post #28
golergka wrote: post #9

> And fear about the potential AI has to make everybody lazy, no longer willing to do things as hard as learning a new language. GPT-4 is also an invaluable help in learning a new language. You can use it as a tutor, explore topics you don't understand well enough, ask it to write texts tailored exactly for your level and vocabulary.

Student should never assess a teacher.

If that were true, we’d go backwards
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