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ChatGPT loses users for first time, shaking faith in AI revolution

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Re: ChatGPT loses users for first time, shaking faith in AI revolution

#151
* agreed on students summer vacation

* My own use has lessened but steadied, eg, writing

* Coming: A dog-fooding goal for our louie.ai team is to eliminate most of our internal data scientist and SE/SA use of ChatGPT by having more purpose-specific and environment-aware experiences (ex: DB schema), and I expect that to be happening in most consumer and business apps. So be interesting to compare chat GPT the app to open AI the API as genAI continues to happen everywhere.

Re: ChatGPT loses users for first time, shaking faith in AI revolution

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a student, but getting constantly cloudflare-blocked and models seeming less capable every update has been giving me pause.

You need a static custom front end, there are tons around. You only have to enter your API key once and no more login-cloudflare-auto logout loop

Here's a collection of front ends: https://github.com/billmei/every-chatgpt-gui

Re: ChatGPT loses users for first time, shaking faith in AI revolution

#153
post #141
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternatively this is an analogue to a parent in 1985 taking their computer away from their kid. AI tools exist, we should be encouraging our kids to learn how to exist in a world with them, not some nostalgic extinct world without.

I choose to believe that at a minimum, she didn’t read the book, and no AI summary will get you the same experience. Also, lying is bad.

>no AI summary will get you the same experience

Yes, but other than being conditioned to believe the experience of reading is superior, why are we striving for that experience?

Doing the square root of 147 by hand is a more educational experience than using a calculator, but I can understand the concept of a square root without having to factorize 147 (the same cannot be said of my pre-calculator ancestors).

It also saves me from having to remember the decimal representation of sqrt3.

Re: ChatGPT loses users for first time, shaking faith in AI revolution

#156

Multiple reasons, but most important: 1. ChatGPT is "play twice and forget" for 90% of users, driven by curiosity. 2. ChatGPT’s answers have actually gotten significantly worse over time. 3. No fun. It's too restricted, hesitant to answer, annoying moral lessons and disclaimers. 4. Distrust. How can it improve productivity or save your time if you always need to double check it with Google or Wikipedia?

There is one important reason you have missed completely, students are going on vacation.

Re: ChatGPT loses users for first time, shaking faith in AI revolution

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it seem to compare with GPT 3.5? That really seems like the baseline for what's usable.

If you're a diligent tester, none of the open source models can touch GPT 3.5 yet, however, in practical terms, some of the 60b and 30b parameter models are almost indistinguishable from GPT 3.5 from the layperson's perspective. Now, if you consider the uncensored models, then you actually have some capabilities that GPT 3.5 and 4 are completely lacking. Based on the rate of progress in the open source world, it won'…

Yup - I'd say this feels about right.

The commercial & api based models are still more capable general purpose tools. But the current open tooling can do some nifty stuff, and the community around it is moving at a breakneck speed still.

In some areas, it's acceptably good. In some areas it's not. But it's getting better really fast.

Re: ChatGPT loses users for first time, shaking faith in AI revolution

#158
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mentioned ChatGPT to my teenager a few months ago. Huge percentage of the teenagers at her school are using it to do their assignments. Later I her to read a few chapters of her book for summer reading. When I quizzed her it, she got it right. Found out later she used ChatGPT to give her a summary of the first chapters. She did not enjoy having first weeks of summer without a phone. School is having to change all ass…

That sounds incredibly backwards to me. How about accepting new realities and changing homework assignments instead?

The world is changing, and children should change with it. Learn and understand technology, and the benefits of where modern machine learning is taking us.

But you cannot unironically think we can substitute fundamental skills like essay writing and critical thinking for a degree in 'prompt engineering'?

Re: ChatGPT loses users for first time, shaking faith in AI revolution

#159
The article doesn't make it clear, but I doubt "users" includes consumers of the API (and the second-order users of the apps using the API).

It seems not only reasonable but expected to see the general user count fall off in favor of people building more specialized alternatives that solve XYZ problem better. ChatGPT (the B2C SaaS) might have a lower user count, but ChatGPT (the model) and GPT (the technology) seem as strong as ever, if not stronger. Literally every service I use is integrating some kind of GPT-based feature that seems to work at least as well as trying to ask those domain-specific questions to ChatGPT, minus the external dependency.

Re: ChatGPT loses users for first time, shaking faith in AI revolution

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that ChatGPT was just released last fall and it was expected to revolutionize practically everything, isn't it still telling that usage is falling? Where are the scientists, lawyers, doctors, office workers etc? You'd expect a slowing in the rate of growth, not shrinking. I don't know, if high school and undergrad students being off for the summer is enough to shrink your app maybe it's not all that? Edit: I un…

> Given that ChatGPT was just released last fall and it was expected to revolutionize practically everything, isn't it still telling that usage is falling? Its not, though. ChatGPT, the website is basically an (increasingly non-exclusive, given BingAI) frontend. What is claimed to be revolutionary is the underlying models (in the narrow view) and similar generative AI systems (in the broader view). As more applicatio…

This is the correct viewpoint. ChatGPT is one specific implementation of the technology, which was most people's first exposure to it. The broader applications of the technology itself are still in the very early stages, but are already making significant impacts.
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