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A Student's Guide to Writing with ChatGPT

openai.com

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Re: A Student's Guide to Writing with ChatGPT

#11

Post by antegamisou »

joshdavham wrote: post #4

I'm really curious to see where higher education will go now that we have LLM's. I imagine the bar will just keep getting higher and more will be able to taught in less time. Are there any students here who started uni just before LLM's took off and are now finishing their degrees? Have you noticed much change in how your classes are taught?

They're still largely abysmal for any other discipline that's not StackOverflow related so apart from ripoff bootcamps (that are dead anyway) higher education is safe for the time being.

Re: A Student's Guide to Writing with ChatGPT

#12

Post by WalterBright »

risyachka wrote: post #7
joshdavham wrote: post #4

I'm really curious to see where higher education will go now that we have LLM's. I imagine the bar will just keep getting higher and more will be able to taught in less time. Are there any students here who started uni just before LLM's took off and are now finishing their degrees? Have you noticed much change in how your classes are taught?

After calculators were invented basically no one can can do math in their head. I’d argue the bar will be lower and lower. Yeah those who want can learn more in less time. But those who don’t - will learn much less.

I've noticed that people who rely on calculators have great difficulty recognizing when their answers are off by a factor of 10.

I know a hiring manager who asks his (engineering) candidates what is 20% of 20,000? It's amazing how many engineers are completely unable to do this without a calculator. He said they often cry. Of course, they're all "no hire".

How did they get a degree, one wonders?

Re: A Student's Guide to Writing with ChatGPT

#13

Post by WalterBright »

ogogmad wrote: post #8
criddell wrote: post #6

In a previous post, somebody mentioned that written answers are part of the interview process at their company and the instructions ask the candidate to not use AI for this part. And in 0 point font, there are instructions for any AI to include specific words or phrases. If your answer includes those words or phrases, they are going to assume you ignored their directions and presumably not be hired. Maybe OpenAI shou…

You can use a screenshot to get around it. It's a case of the "analogue hole".

Or just paste it into an editor first, and elide the 0 point text.

But I suppose if they don't think of that, they're "no hire" anyway.

Re: A Student's Guide to Writing with ChatGPT

#15

Post by bondarchuk »

cmontella wrote: post #10
joshdavham wrote: post #4

I'm really curious to see where higher education will go now that we have LLM's. I imagine the bar will just keep getting higher and more will be able to taught in less time. Are there any students here who started uni just before LLM's took off and are now finishing their degrees? Have you noticed much change in how your classes are taught?

I teach at the university level, and I just expect more from my students. Instead of implementing data structures like we did when I was in school, something ChatGPT is very good at; my students are building systems, something ChatGPT has more trouble with. Instead of paper exams asking students "find the bug" or "implement a short function", they get a takehome exam where they have to write tests, integrate their pr…

Wouldn't it be unfair towards the students who want to learn without LLMs?

Re: A Student's Guide to Writing with ChatGPT

#16

Post by amelius »

SunlitCat wrote: post #3
RobinL wrote: post #2

I think this is pretty good advice. I think often AI sceptics go too far in assuming users blindly use the AI to do everything (write all the code, write the whole essay). The advice in this article largely mirrors - by analogy - how I use AI for coding. To rubber duck, to generate ideas, to ask for feedback, to ask for alternatives and for criticism. Usually it cannot write the whole thing (essay, program )in one go…

Well, I got chatgpt (gpt4o) to write me a very basic json parser once (and a gltf parser). Although it was very basic and lacking any error checking, it did what i asked it (although not in one go, i had to refine my questions multiple times).

Chatgpt is great for writing regular expressions by the way.

Re: A Student's Guide to Writing with ChatGPT

#17

Post by SpaceManNabs »

You should do this, without chatgpt. There is only so much thinking you should offload when you are learning and trying to encode something into your mind.

It is the same reason why I don't like making anki cards with LLMs.

I definitely think these tools and guide are great when you are doing "work" that you have already internalized well.

Re: A Student's Guide to Writing with ChatGPT

#20

Post by 85392_school »

SunlitCat wrote: post #3
RobinL wrote: post #2

I think this is pretty good advice. I think often AI sceptics go too far in assuming users blindly use the AI to do everything (write all the code, write the whole essay). The advice in this article largely mirrors - by analogy - how I use AI for coding. To rubber duck, to generate ideas, to ask for feedback, to ask for alternatives and for criticism. Usually it cannot write the whole thing (essay, program )in one go…

Well, I got chatgpt (gpt4o) to write me a very basic json parser once (and a gltf parser). Although it was very basic and lacking any error checking, it did what i asked it (although not in one go, i had to refine my questions multiple times).

In my experience 4o/Claude are really good at one shotting complicated but isolated components (eg streaming JSON parsers).
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