Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Oslo acquires ChatGPT for 110k students and teachers

digi.no

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 207 posts

Re: Oslo acquires ChatGPT for 110k students and teachers

#141

Post by Roark66 »

behnamoh wrote: post #26

Why not use a combination of open source and OpenAI models? GPT-3.5 is already beaten by Mixtral and Mistral-Medium. The first one you can host for free and the second has a darn cheap API while getting really close to GPT-4 performance.

There are certain "quality of life" issues with the open source ecosystem. I don't blame them for choosing (not at all) OpenAI. For one putting together a chatgpt like experience that supports reliably at least chat history and per user system prompts of different models, requires a chat client that doesn't exist (at least it didn't a couple of months ago when I was looking for one). The closest we have now is a vscode plugin written by one guy I had to modify to work with multiple models (but it is a pretty good OpenAI api client). Also, OpenAI API is a defacto standard for clients talking to AI chat bots. To set it up with Mixtral I had to put together a non trivial system of huggingface TGI server (code extended to support token bias, cfg and negative prompts), and a (very slightly modified) litellm proxy to translate OpenAI api to TGI API. These products were used from the latest github branch and all had various shortcomings that required coding to resolve. Now I can say I truly have an "OpenAI - like" chat experience. But one huge functionality is missing. Function calling. Although implementing it now that I already have context free grammars is not that difficult, it still requires time I haven't found yet. Compare this to just paying a fee every month and getting it all done for you. Still I believe it is very important people recreate what OpenAI offers locally using open source software. Why? Be it is clear AI's like chatgpt is essentially sold well below cost now to hook people up. In 5 years from now once no one will be able to maintain their productivity without it, (not at all)OpenAI will raise the prices 100x and everyone will pay begrudgingly. Then they will raise them 100x more and people will pay too... Unless there is a viable alternative. This is why I(and many like me) are working on having my own.

Re: Oslo acquires ChatGPT for 110k students and teachers

#142

Post by lpapez »

cageface wrote: post #127
calibas wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's often confidently wrong, but it's still a useful tool. I spent 5 minutes searching Google for what an email error code meant, it kept showing me threads on Microsoft's forums that never gave me a clear answer. Took about 10 seconds to get the correct answer on ChatGPT. If you treat it like it's a bumbling assistant that has remarkably encyclopedic knowledge, it's a very helpful tool. If you treat it like it's tr…

Took about 10 seconds to get the correct answer on ChatGPT. But, generally speaking, if you don’t have some way of verifying what the correct answer is, how can you be sure that the answers you get in 10 seconds from the LLM are actually correct?

If you don't have a way of verifying what the correct answer is, then is there actually a correct answer at all?

In many cases, programming included, you don't actually care if it's 100% correct, it is enough to just give you a nudge, show you the way forward, suggest some ideas etc.

If whatever it is you are doing can be verified for correctness, then of course you will check the answer. But for creative pursuits there often is no correct answer, and generative AI (LLMs included) excel at that.

Re: Oslo acquires ChatGPT for 110k students and teachers

#143

Post by r366y6 »

chaosprint wrote: post #125

My opinion: irresponsible for children; it's just that some civil servants want to show that they understand the trend. They love to do this kind of movement in order to "show off". But the fact is that they only have a partial understanding of this technology and follow what others say. There is no information that they compared open source models and considered whether to build their own data servers. You should at…

I agree. I have a daughter attending primary school in Oslo(barneskole); they use iPad for almost everything because some years ago Norwegian government decided that using a tablet is important for they digital skills. As result, we have to spend half hour after dinner everyday to help her practicing reading and writing because they spend so much time in front of a screen. I don't argue that using digital tools can be helpful but replacing almost all handwriting with digital devices, in my opinion, is harmful for children development.

Re: Oslo acquires ChatGPT for 110k students and teachers

#144

Post by chaosprint »

klodolph wrote: post #130
chaosprint wrote: post #125

My opinion: irresponsible for children; it's just that some civil servants want to show that they understand the trend. They love to do this kind of movement in order to "show off". But the fact is that they only have a partial understanding of this technology and follow what others say. There is no information that they compared open source models and considered whether to build their own data servers. You should at…

Reminds me of when school districts would buy iPads or laptops or computer labs without any idea of how those machines would support their mission.

If it is an iPad, it stands to reason that people from the education and medical departments should first evaluate whether there is any damage to the children's brains and eyes.

But the logic in Oslo is that our municipal government has a budget, and buying it at least shows what I have done as a civil servant.

I don’t know if you can get their “must do something” mentality.

Re: Oslo acquires ChatGPT for 110k students and teachers

#147

Post by singularity2001 »

chaosprint wrote: post #125

My opinion: irresponsible for children; it's just that some civil servants want to show that they understand the trend. They love to do this kind of movement in order to "show off". But the fact is that they only have a partial understanding of this technology and follow what others say. There is no information that they compared open source models and considered whether to build their own data servers. You should at…

Lo! As the abacus once heralded the doom of mental arithmetic, so doth ChatGPT foretell the end of cogitation itself.

Re: Oslo acquires ChatGPT for 110k students and teachers

#148

Post by Irishsteve »

behnamoh wrote: post #26

Why not use a combination of open source and OpenAI models? GPT-3.5 is already beaten by Mixtral and Mistral-Medium. The first one you can host for free and the second has a darn cheap API while getting really close to GPT-4 performance.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the deal was somehow done via Microsoft and some contract they already have with the Norwegian government. This is how certain ms tech end up with the Irish government so quickly.

Mistral , open source etc do not have a sales force. Shame really

Re: Oslo acquires ChatGPT for 110k students and teachers

#149

Post by protomolecule »

philip1209 wrote: post #122
panxyh wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time is saved, brain cells don’t need to ;)

It's intellectually dishonest to assume that AI decreases intelligence.

Is it also "intellectually dishonest" to say that GPS decreases spatial memory?

Re: Oslo acquires ChatGPT for 110k students and teachers

#150

Post by singularity2001 »

imutemyteam92 wrote: post #91
changoplatanero wrote: post #9

There is a worry expressed in the article about inequality arising from some students having paid access to gpt4 whereas the bulk of the students only get access to gpt3.5. I'm hoping to see openai release an update to the 3.5 model that makes this gap in performance be less relevant.

Tbf its really not that big of a deal. First people have to be taught to use it, for that 3.5 is decent. I guess its like your grandma using Google, vs as a working professional using Google. Your grandma using google is still a plus.

while 4.0 is mostly astonishing and amazing 3.5 is often annoying and borderline useless

at least for professionals, maybe kids don't care too much

Post reply on HN