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I'd rather read the prompt

claytonwramsey.com

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Re: I'd rather read the prompt

#151

Post by Y_Y »

Nezteb wrote: post #67
vunderba wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the CRUX of the issue. Even with SOTA models (Sonnet 3.5, etc) - the more open-ended your prompt - the more banal and generic the response. It's GIGO turtles all the way down. I pointed this out a few weeks ago with respect to why the current state of LLMs will never make great campaign creators in Dungeons and Dragons. We as humans don't need to be "constrained" - ask any competent writer to sit quietly and…

Out of curiosity, I used your prompt but added "Do not make it a very formulaic physics-based puzzle." The output is pretty non-sensical: https://pastebin.com/raw/hetAvjSG

I liked the puzzle and I think I could DM it.

Re: I'd rather read the prompt

#152

Post by makeitdouble »

crooked-v wrote: post #91
ineptech wrote: post #86

Relatedly, there was a major controversy at work recently over the propriety of adding something like this to a lengthy email discussion: > Since this is a long thread and we're including a wider audience, I thought I'd add Copilot's summary... Someone called them out for it, several others defended it. It was brought up in one team's retro and the opinions were divided and very contentious, ranging from, "the summar…

I think the attribution itself is a certain form of cowardice. If one is actually confident that a summary is correct they'd incorporate it directly. Leaving in the "Copilot says" is an implicit attempt to weasel out of taking responsibility for it.

It's probably just transparency, because the summary will be written in a different voice and sound AIish either way.

If I were to include AI generated stuff into my communication I'd also make it clear as people might guess it anyway.

Re: I'd rather read the prompt

#153

Post by roarcher »

necovek wrote: post #54

I've already asked a number of colleagues at work producing insane amount of gibberish with LLMs to just pass me the prompt instead: if LLM can produce verbose text with limited input, I just need that concise input too (the rest is simply made up crap).

Recently I wasted half a day trying to make sense of story requirements given to me by a BA that were contradictory and far more elaborate than we had previously discussed. When I finally got ahold of him he confessed that he had run the actual requirements through ChatGPT and "didn't have time to proofread the results". Absolutely infuriating.

Re: I'd rather read the prompt

#154

Post by YmiYugy »

Hate the game not the player. For the moment we continue to live in a world where the form and tone of communication matters and where foregoing the use of AI tools can put you at a disadvantage. There are countless homework assignments where teachers will give better grades to LLM outputs. An LLM can quickly generate targeted cover letters dramatically increasing efficiency while job hunting. Getting a paper accepted requires you to adhere to an academic writing style. LLMs can get you there. Maybe society just needs a few more years to adjust and shift expectations. In the meantime you should probably continue to use AI.

Re: I'd rather read the prompt

#155

Post by palata »

Ancalagon wrote: post #8

I fully support the author’s point but it’s hard to argue with the economics and hurdles around obtaining degrees. Most people do view obtaining a degree as just a hurdle to getting a decent job, that’s just the economics of it. And unfortunately the employers these days are encouraging this kind of copy/paste work. Look at how Meta and Google claim the majority of the new code written there is AI created? The world…

> Most people do view obtaining a degree as just a hurdle to getting a decent job, that’s just the economics of it.

Because those who recruit based on the degree aren't worth more than those who get a degree by using LLMs.

Maybe it will force a big change in the way students are graded. Maybe, after they have handed in their essay, the teacher should just have a discussion about it, to see how much they actually absorbed from the topic.

Or not, and LLMs will just make everything worse. That's more likely IMO.

Re: I'd rather read the prompt

#156

Post by natebc »

robertlagrant wrote: post #18

Time to go back to writing essays in exams, live, on paper.

Honestly I think we'll get back there. I remember ... fondly(?) exams from my history courses in undergrad in the mid 90s. 3-4 questions, 3 hours, anything less than what would amount to a pretty decent length and moderately thorough term paper would fail and have to be made up with an absolutely BRUTAL multiple choice + fill in the blank exam at the end of the term.

Those classes are what taught me how to study and really internalize the material. Helped me so much later in college too. I really can't imagine how kids these days are doing it.

Re: I'd rather read the prompt

#157

Post by Mbwagava »

YmiYugy wrote: post #154

Hate the game not the player. For the moment we continue to live in a world where the form and tone of communication matters and where foregoing the use of AI tools can put you at a disadvantage. There are countless homework assignments where teachers will give better grades to LLM outputs. An LLM can quickly generate targeted cover letters dramatically increasing efficiency while job hunting. Getting a paper accepte…

Surely this just makes a mockery of the same tone and style that indicates someone put effort and thought into producing something. This just seems in net to waste everyone's time with no benefit to us.

Re: I'd rather read the prompt

#158

Post by yupitsme123 »

YmiYugy wrote: post #154

Hate the game not the player. For the moment we continue to live in a world where the form and tone of communication matters and where foregoing the use of AI tools can put you at a disadvantage. There are countless homework assignments where teachers will give better grades to LLM outputs. An LLM can quickly generate targeted cover letters dramatically increasing efficiency while job hunting. Getting a paper accepte…

I can't even think of what the new set of expectations would even be of that shift were to occur.

Re: I'd rather read the prompt

#159

Post by imhoguy »

laurentlb wrote: post #127

There are many ways to use LLMs. The issue, IMO, is that some people throw in a one-shot, short prompt, and get a generic, boring output. "Garbage in, generic out." Here's how I actually use LLMs: - To dump my thoughts and get help organizing them. - To get feedback on phrasing and transitions (I'm not a native speaker). - To improve tone, style (while trying to keep it personal!), or just to simplify messy sentences…

Exactly it is a tool which needs skill to use. I would add extra use of mine:

- To "Translate to language XYZ", and that is not sometimes strightforward and needs iterating like "Translate to language used by living in " and so on.

And the author is right, I use it as 2nd-language user, thus LLM produces better text than myself. However I am not going to share the prompt as it is useless (foreign language) and too messy (bits of draft text) to the reader. I would compare it to passing a book draft thru editor and translator.

Re: I'd rather read the prompt

#160

Post by Herring »

staunton wrote: post #140
Herring wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think half the population of the world wants just the facts, the other half wants long flowing beautiful content like on apple.com, and neither group knows the other exists. Of course this is the right way to do it!

I'm sure it's beside the point but... Your benchmark for "long flowing beautiful content" is apple.com? It's competing with Hemingway?

Spoken like a true "just the facts" guy. If this is a competition then Hemmingway is losing hands down. Serious well-funded marketing departments came up with that long-form style, because that's what the vast majority of people respond to. I'm just happy they have a tiny "tech specs" section for me (and presumably you).
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