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

What if AI didn't make you a bad writer, but a better thinker?

slite.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 127 posts

Re: What if AI didn't make you a bad writer, but a better thinker?

#71

Post by barbariangrunge »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #15

The spate of AI "artwork" I have seen over the past few months has seemed to me to be good "prompts" for artists. Many of what I have seen has a germ of something interesting in it — but is often missing in other regards. An obvious example that comes to mind are the recent "Jordowsky Tron" images [1]. Any art director could comb those images, consider changes here, there — and end up with something better than the A…

That’s a misinterpretation of what art is. In art, the important part is the idea. You then use your technique to convey that idea (often the idea is intimately linked to the aesthetic). If an ai gives you both an idea and a style as your prompts, you’re not really contributing to the final work in the way you should be

Re: What if AI didn't make you a bad writer, but a better thinker?

#72

Post by haswell »

asciimov wrote: post #70

I'm increasingly frustrated by the amount of people willing to give up control of their own thought processing. At what point do you decide, I'm good enough and don't need to improve, I'll make the AI do it for me!

Before getting frustrated, it seems like we need to have a serious conversation about what we believe is/is not appropriate to delegate to a computer system. We need to be looking at why people are so willing to give up certain categories of thought processing.

Do you feel the same frustration regarding handheld calculators? Why or why not? The utility of reducing math mistakes and improving accuracy across an entire population seems clear.

And yet the ubiquity of calculators has not removed the need to learn the fundamentals of mathematics. I suspect the same will emerge with AI tools.

The primary difference is that it seems possible to get better at writing by working with an AI while a calculator is just a black box that spits out a pre-determinable answer.

A calculator is arguably an overly simplistic analogy, and nuance abounds once you bring AI into the mix, but I don’t think the tech community has done a good job of distinguishing between AI-specific concerns and garden variety problems that seem common to most modern technology, especially the kind that automates something that historically required a human in the loop.

Re: What if AI didn't make you a bad writer, but a better thinker?

#73

Post by flanked-evergl »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #64
rcme wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So you are providing sensitive business information/facts to a third party service that's likely going to use those for training, analysis, store it, etc. ? Every business needs to make their own decision. Personally, I’m not worried about OpenAI using my data, but I understand others might be. That being said, I already give Amazon literally all my data about my business via AWS and Google gets a copy of all my do…

The difference is that GPT is training future versions based on the information you provide. It could potentially be returned to a future user. AWS does no such thing.

> The difference is that GPT is training future versions based on the information you provide.

Do they say so in their T&C or elsewhere, and if not how do you know?

Re: What if AI didn't make you a bad writer, but a better thinker?

#74

Post by pmarreck »

asciimov wrote: post #70

I'm increasingly frustrated by the amount of people willing to give up control of their own thought processing. At what point do you decide, I'm good enough and don't need to improve, I'll make the AI do it for me!

(Love your username btw.)

I think that this is great and I'll explain why.

When the machines manage to supplant all the mechanistic portions of our thinking, what will remain? The creative bits, is my guess. There will be far more room for the creative bits, and then... ???

Re: What if AI didn't make you a bad writer, but a better thinker?

#75

Post by kibwen »

haswell wrote: post #72
asciimov wrote: post #70

I'm increasingly frustrated by the amount of people willing to give up control of their own thought processing. At what point do you decide, I'm good enough and don't need to improve, I'll make the AI do it for me!

Before getting frustrated, it seems like we need to have a serious conversation about what we believe is/is not appropriate to delegate to a computer system. We need to be looking at why people are so willing to give up certain categories of thought processing. Do you feel the same frustration regarding handheld calculators? Why or why not? The utility of reducing math mistakes and improving accuracy across an entire…

It is a risk to outsource critical thinking, because a capacity for critical thinking is essential for freedom of thought, which is essential for free society in general.

Delegating creativity is less likely to lead to outright disaster, but allowing your creativity to atrophy sounds like a recipe for a terminally boring society.

Re: What if AI didn't make you a bad writer, but a better thinker?

#76

Post by adamsmith143 »

asciimov wrote: post #70

I'm increasingly frustrated by the amount of people willing to give up control of their own thought processing. At what point do you decide, I'm good enough and don't need to improve, I'll make the AI do it for me!

An argument as old and frankly as tired as time itself:

Plato on reading and writing: "For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them."

Re: What if AI didn't make you a bad writer, but a better thinker?

#77

Post by adamsmith143 »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #15

The spate of AI "artwork" I have seen over the past few months has seemed to me to be good "prompts" for artists. Many of what I have seen has a germ of something interesting in it — but is often missing in other regards. An obvious example that comes to mind are the recent "Jordowsky Tron" images [1]. Any art director could comb those images, consider changes here, there — and end up with something better than the A…

>The spate of AI "artwork" I have seen over the past few months has seemed to me to be good "prompts" for artists.

The best outputs from a model like Midjourney go way beyond mere prompts for other artists.

https://www.midjourney.com/showcase/top/

Re: What if AI didn't make you a bad writer, but a better thinker?

#78

Post by tfigment »

wprl wrote: post #53
popinman322 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snippets of your local code are sent to the API as part of the Copilot request context.

When I looked into this a little bit, I found Copilot for Business states they do not record any of the info you send them. Though obviously you are still sending out code to a third party. I could not find any info about their policies for “normal” Copilot which I assume means they are recording all the code sent to it and using our code to further train the model.

Still hard to trust. Many companies save info for training/qa purposes and hide details in obscure language. Voice assistants for example. Didn't Roomba get in trouble recently regarding photos uploaded and then shared with contractors for qa that ultimately shared the embarrasing photos more publicly.

Re: What if AI didn't make you a bad writer, but a better thinker?

#79

Post by jeffbee »

flanked-evergl wrote: post #73
_Algernon_ wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that GPT is training future versions based on the information you provide. It could potentially be returned to a future user. AWS does no such thing.

> The difference is that GPT is training future versions based on the information you provide. Do they say so in their T&C or elsewhere, and if not how do you know?

Would have been easier to read the T&C than to post this comment. The answer is yes. OpenAI specifically says in their T&C that your content will be used to train their models.

Re: What if AI didn't make you a bad writer, but a better thinker?

#80

Post by Shaggy2000 »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #64
rcme wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So you are providing sensitive business information/facts to a third party service that's likely going to use those for training, analysis, store it, etc. ? Every business needs to make their own decision. Personally, I’m not worried about OpenAI using my data, but I understand others might be. That being said, I already give Amazon literally all my data about my business via AWS and Google gets a copy of all my do…

The difference is that GPT is training future versions based on the information you provide. It could potentially be returned to a future user. AWS does no such thing.

It's easy to replace terms with something else in order to keep information confidential.
Post reply on HN