ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving • Hacker News Board

Re: ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving

#251

Post by mrtranscendence » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 5:48 PM UTC

chimeracoder wrote: post #235

pdonis wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Trading quality for price Means that many, many more people can have something of passable quality. For example: > not that long ago all clothes you wore were custom made by a tailor If you could afford a tailor; otherwise you had to make do with homemade rags that constantly needed mending and looked terrible. > all the music you listened to was played live by musicians If you could afford to go to concerts. > all…

> > not that long ago all clothes you wore were custom made by a tailor > If you could afford a tailor; otherwise you had to make do with homemade rags that constantly needed mending and looked terrible. Or you bought clothes infrequently and maintained them, and they lasted longer because the quality was much better. People are so used to fast fashion these days that they assume that the poor in previous eras suffer…

You write like as soon as I put on a pair of jeans from Walmart it immediately begins disintegrating. It's not nearly as bad as you're making it out to be. I've had relatively cheap clothes for years without having to worry about it very much.

And it's nice that when my clothes are stained or irreparably damaged I can afford to replace them quickly.

Re: ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving

#252

Post by ttul » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 5:51 PM UTC

ChatGPT has been incredibly helpful in getting the skeleton of a text down on paper - a task that can often be tedious and time-consuming. Once the skeleton is in place, I am able to embellish it with my own flair, fix any factual errors, and make real progress. I'm not alone in my assessment of ChatGPT's potential. Many experts believe that the tool has the potential to significantly improve the productivity of writers.

However, it is important to note that ChatGPT is not a replacement for human creativity and originality. The creative and unique aspects of writing are still the domain of the writer, while the tool is simply a tool to assist in the more mundane tasks. Nevertheless, as technology continues to advance, it is likely that we will see more and more writers turning to tools such as ChatGPT to improve their productivity and efficiency.

*GPT helped me write this too, in the style of a Wall Street Journal article.

Re: ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving

#253

Post by 908B64B197 » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 5:51 PM UTC

fhd2 wrote: post #79

_petronius wrote: post #14

I'm less worried about stuff like ChatGPT killing things off, but more about just making everything noticeably a bit worse. To take an analogy: bad voice recognition software abounds everywhere, not because it is better than what it replaced in terms of UX, but because it works just enough and allows massive cost-savings on hiring people to do customer service jobs. A world where most marketing copy is written by med…

I have the same worry. Another example: Is furniture nowadays more beautiful and durable than it used to be 100 years ago? Is there more variety now? Not in my book. Same goes for a lot of products that are now produced in the cheapest way possible at scale. Looks very much like a race to the bottom dominated by a few big players to me. Consumers don't seem to care that much.

Modern furniture is much lighter and easier to disassemble, thanks to screws, nuts and bolts being much cheaper than 100 years ago.

Re: ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving

#254

Post by ghaff » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 5:52 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #77

jewelry wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember a while ago American shows and movies joked about Indian customer support, as they "lower the standard of customer service". Now here the same to AI "lower the standard of subtitle". The quality is not appreciated which is why the offering are lower the bar for quality constantly. Or they'll be out competed.

The sad thing is, AI could be used in a clever way - have AI do the large amount of leg work in transcription, and have a human refine that.

Maybe. But at least today my experience is that AI podcast transcription with good audio is off enough that I only use it to check quotes or pick out short excerpts. If I'm going to publish a full transcription, I'll just have a human do it. Not clear to me if it's faster for someone who does that sort of thing to be making a lot of corrections as opposed to just transcribing--though it will get there.

Re: ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving

#255

Post by mixedCase » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 5:53 PM UTC

chimeracoder wrote: post #235

pdonis wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Trading quality for price Means that many, many more people can have something of passable quality. For example: > not that long ago all clothes you wore were custom made by a tailor If you could afford a tailor; otherwise you had to make do with homemade rags that constantly needed mending and looked terrible. > all the music you listened to was played live by musicians If you could afford to go to concerts. > all…

> > not that long ago all clothes you wore were custom made by a tailor > If you could afford a tailor; otherwise you had to make do with homemade rags that constantly needed mending and looked terrible. Or you bought clothes infrequently and maintained them, and they lasted longer because the quality was much better. People are so used to fast fashion these days that they assume that the poor in previous eras suffer…

People still have high quality clothing available, but when given the option they choose to buy cheaper clothing more frequently rather than mend high quality ones.

This is a preference that has been demonstrated time and again throughout the world as it became an option.

So no, I don't believe it is clear at all how this is to the detriment of the average person.

Re: ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving

#256

Post by Sai_ » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 5:55 PM UTC

badcppdev wrote: post #222

joshstrange wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in return I can get subtitles on literally everything I want now instead of hoping the creator added them. I have no doubt that some places that were paying for transcription decided to go to AI/ML route but for every 1-2 of those there have have to be thousands of examples of subtitles existing where they never would have before. I always have YT's subtitles turned on and while they aren't perfect they are way b…

I have observed subtitles with mistakes that change the meaning to the exact opposite! On a video about the supply lines of components for a particular approach to fusion. Single word change which meant the CEO was saying his company wouldn't work. Are you sure you don't want to throw the navy out with the bathwater?

> the navy out with the bathwater?

I realise it is not good HN form to talk about the comment instead of adding to the conversation but the subtlety with which you injected this was brilliant.

I was ready to ignore the change as human error/typo until it hit me.

Point about AI driven subtitling very well made!

Re: ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving

#257

Post by namdnay » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 5:55 PM UTC

chimeracoder wrote: post #235

pdonis wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Trading quality for price Means that many, many more people can have something of passable quality. For example: > not that long ago all clothes you wore were custom made by a tailor If you could afford a tailor; otherwise you had to make do with homemade rags that constantly needed mending and looked terrible. > all the music you listened to was played live by musicians If you could afford to go to concerts. > all…

> > not that long ago all clothes you wore were custom made by a tailor > If you could afford a tailor; otherwise you had to make do with homemade rags that constantly needed mending and looked terrible. Or you bought clothes infrequently and maintained them, and they lasted longer because the quality was much better. People are so used to fast fashion these days that they assume that the poor in previous eras suffer…

I think you’re romanticizing the past. For 99% of human history, 99 of women had to make do with one I’ll fitting “dress” from teenage to death, including pregnancy

Re: ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving

#258

Post by namdnay » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 5:56 PM UTC

tetraodonpuffer wrote: post #74

_petronius wrote: post #14

I'm less worried about stuff like ChatGPT killing things off, but more about just making everything noticeably a bit worse. To take an analogy: bad voice recognition software abounds everywhere, not because it is better than what it replaced in terms of UX, but because it works just enough and allows massive cost-savings on hiring people to do customer service jobs. A world where most marketing copy is written by med…

Trading quality for price has been happening everywhere for long enough that it is easy to see how unfortunately it will now play out in the arts as well. I mean, not that long ago all clothes you wore were custom made by a tailor, all the music you listened to was played live by musicians, all stories were brought to life in front of you by theatre actors: now all of those while still available are significantly mor…

I’m not sure tailored clothes have become more expensive at all. You can have a tailored suit for what, a couple of thousand? So 1-2 months of the average wage? That’s peanuts historically

Re: ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving

#259

Post by NoGravitas » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #241

brickteacup wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all the music you listened to was played live by musicians, all stories were brought to life in front of you by theatre actors well, no, you probably didn't listen to much music or see many stories at all because the average person couldn't afford to experience such things more than a few times in their life. shocking that Luddites are still a thing in the 21st century, especially here.

I think you'd be surprised at the degree to which the "little people" did experience live entertainment before the advent of mass market recordings. Festivals, traveling troubadours, other traveling performers...

Yeah, I guess all those groundlings standing around eating oranges and laughing at the dirty jokes at the Globe Theater in Shakespeare's day just didn't exist in this guy's universe.

Re: ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving

#260

Post by Animats » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

It's a huge shakeup to human models of what is important. ChatGPT is so good at blithering without requiring any underlying model of what it is writing about. What people thought was profound - isn't.

What it will do to management? Can ChatGPT pass an "inbox test" yet? That's a test for managers, where you get a background document and a queue of incoming messages. You have to reply to each message, in writing, in order. Someone who uses inbox tests needs to try that.