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Large language models reduce public knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms

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Re: Large language models reduce public knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms

#271

Post by mgl »

zmmmmm wrote: post #260
insane_dreamer wrote: post #120

The problem is eventually what are LLMs going’s to draw from? They’re not creating new information, just regurgitating and combining existing info. That’s why they perform so poorly on code for which there aren’t many many publicly available samples, SO/reddit answers etc.

It may be an interesting side effect that people stop so gratuitously inventing random new software languages and frameowrks because the LLMs don't know about it. I know I'm already leaning towards tech that the LLM can work well with, simply because being able to ask the LLM to solve 90% of the problem outweighs any marginal advantage using a slightly better language or framework offers. Fro example, I dislike Pytho…

Yes, sticking to the most popular technologies increases quality of the output, enabling even smaller startups to build applications like https://youtu.be/oafdA2WXvEc?feature=shared

Re: Large language models reduce public knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms

#272

Post by creer »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #120

The problem is eventually what are LLMs going’s to draw from? They’re not creating new information, just regurgitating and combining existing info. That’s why they perform so poorly on code for which there aren’t many many publicly available samples, SO/reddit answers etc.

> They’re not creating new information

Most of this "knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms" is NOT creative activity. It's endless questions about the same issues everyone is having except the system developers themselves. Much of this is just displacing search platforms.

Re: Large language models reduce public knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms

#273

Post by Iulioh »

toofy wrote: post #264
VancouverMan wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Will we start to constantly question human advice or responses and what does that do to the human condition. I'm surprised when people don't already engage in questioning like that. I've had to be doing it for decades at this point. Much of the worst advice and information I've ever received has come from expensive human so-called "professionals" and "experts" like doctors, accountants, lawyers, financial advisors,…

does this mean you trust complete randoms just as much? if i need advice on repairing a weird unique metal piece on a 1959 corvette, im going to trust the advice of an expert in classic corvettes way before i trust the advice of my barber who knows nothing about cars but confidently tells me to check the tire pressure. this “oh no, experts have be wrong before” we see so much is wild to me. in nuanced fields i’ll tak…

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does this mean you trust complete randoms just as much?

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Personally i trust the consensus, not necessarily one random person.

I have the same problem as the guy above, at this point i assume doctors are almost always wrong if the problem isn't something really common for specific enough

Re: Large language models reduce public knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms

#274

Post by cloverich »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #120

The problem is eventually what are LLMs going’s to draw from? They’re not creating new information, just regurgitating and combining existing info. That’s why they perform so poorly on code for which there aren’t many many publicly available samples, SO/reddit answers etc.

All of the conversations they are having with real humans? If it's as big as chat gpt why can't it just consume its own information which is at least half from a human?

Seems like the humans using it can be also training and effectively paying for the right to do so? I would guess this could be easily gamified.

Re: Large language models reduce public knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms

#275

Post by creer »

Const-me wrote: post #154
stickfigure wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is eventually what are LLMs going’s to draw from? Published documentation. I'm going to make up a number but I'll defend it: 90% of the information content of stackoverflow is regurgitated from some manual somewhere. The problem is that the specific information you're looking for in the relevant documentation is often hard to find, and even when found is often hard to read. LLMs are fantastic at reading…

That is only true for trivial questions. I've answered dozens of questions on stackoverflow.com with tags like SIMD, SSE, AVX, NEON. Only a minority of these asked for a single SIMD instruction which does something specific. Usually people ask how to use the complete instruction set to accomplish something higher level. Documentation alone doesn't answer questions like that, you need an expert who actually used that…

And even for trivial questions, there is a lot out there that the doc developers ignored or hid.

For me, the current state of affairs is the difficulty of aiming search engines to the right answer. The answer might be out there, but figuring out HOW t oask the questions, which are the right keywords, etc - basically requires knowing where the answer is. LLMs have potential in rephrasing boththe question and what they might have glanced at here and there - even if obvious in hindsight.

Re: Large language models reduce public knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms

#276

Post by woodruffw »

creer wrote: post #272
insane_dreamer wrote: post #120

The problem is eventually what are LLMs going’s to draw from? They’re not creating new information, just regurgitating and combining existing info. That’s why they perform so poorly on code for which there aren’t many many publicly available samples, SO/reddit answers etc.

> They’re not creating new information Most of this "knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms" is NOT creative activity. It's endless questions about the same issues everyone is having except the system developers themselves. Much of this is just displacing search platforms.

It can be simultaneously true that (1) most answers on online Q&A platforms are not novel, and (2) that LLMs reduce the proportional novelty of answers.

Re: Large language models reduce public knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms

#277

Post by ilrwbwrkhv »

nfw2 wrote: post #249
insane_dreamer wrote: post #120

The problem is eventually what are LLMs going’s to draw from? They’re not creating new information, just regurgitating and combining existing info. That’s why they perform so poorly on code for which there aren’t many many publicly available samples, SO/reddit answers etc.

Fwiw, GPT o1 helped me figure out how a fairly complex use case of epub.js, an open-source library with pretty opaque documentation and relatively few public samples. It took a few back-and-forths to get to a working solution, but it did get there. It makes me wonder if the AI successfully found and digested obscure sources on the internet or was just better at making sense of the esoteric documentation than me. If t…

Curious about your complex use case of epub.js. What were you trying to do with it?

Re: Large language models reduce public knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms

#278

Post by skydhash »

creer wrote: post #275
Const-me wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is only true for trivial questions. I've answered dozens of questions on stackoverflow.com with tags like SIMD, SSE, AVX, NEON. Only a minority of these asked for a single SIMD instruction which does something specific. Usually people ask how to use the complete instruction set to accomplish something higher level. Documentation alone doesn't answer questions like that, you need an expert who actually used that…

And even for trivial questions, there is a lot out there that the doc developers ignored or hid. For me, the current state of affairs is the difficulty of aiming search engines to the right answer. The answer might be out there, but figuring out HOW t oask the questions, which are the right keywords, etc - basically requires knowing where the answer is. LLMs have potential in rephrasing boththe question and what they…

Don’t use search engines unless you know what you’re searching. Which means I start with another material first (books, wiki, manual,…) which will give me enough ideas of what I want will be. Starting with a search engine is like searching for a piece of a jigzaw with only the picture on the box, you have to know it’s shape first and where it would go.

Re: Large language models reduce public knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms

#279

Post by Terretta »

People don't post where they aren't visiting.

They're not visiting Stack Overflow for well-read material (the popular languages) because perplexity.ai, ChatGPT, Claude, etc., not only answer questions better than reading pages of StackOverflow, but will cut and paste the (right or wrong) answer for you faster.

If you're not on StackOverflow while asking questions, you aren't answering things there either. Nothing else is needed to explain their observations.

Of course, this means that to compete, StackOverflow and other Q&A forums must bring the answering usability (integrating answers into one's flow) to the top.

Re: Large language models reduce public knowledge sharing on online Q&A platforms

#280

Post by grugagag »

emptiestplace wrote: post #252
neither_color wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that it sloppily goes back and forth between old and new methods, and as your LLM spaghetti code grows it becomes incapable of precision adding functions without breaking existing logic. All those tech demos of it instantly creating a whole app with one or a few prompts are junk. If you don't know what you're doing then as you keep adding features it WILL constantly switch up the way you make api calls(here's…

Naively asking it for code for anything remotely complex is foolish, but if you do know what you're doing and understand how to manage context, it's a ridiculously potent force multiplier. I rarely ask it for anything without specifying which libraries I want to use, and if I'm not sure which library I want, I'll ask it about options and review before proceeding.

It’s just like any other tool. If you know how to leverage it you’ll gain a lot more from it.
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