GPT is dead, long live LLMs!
The following is a pretty good (IMO) reflection on what GPT is bad (and
good) for.
https://medium.com/@jordan_gibbs/how-to-not-use-chatgpt-8088ec559681
I've been messing with GPT3/4 and Bard for most of a year now and the
honeymoon is definitely over, not that it ever started.
I like to refer to them as "bar friends" because my expectations of them
fall just about where my expectations of a new bar friend might be. I
don't expect them to be interesting much less informative or useful on
any given topic, but am pleasantly surprised if/when/as they turn out to
be any of the above.
I rarely take the advice of a "bar friend" at face value, but do find
that they can often bring new perspectives from either their unique
personality or their unique experiences. This is not to say I don't
"trust" my bar-friends, just that I trust them to be who they are, even
though I likely don't *know* who they are.
I feel I've come to know GPT and Bard well enough to agree with Gibbs
(above) about it's limitations and biases...
My main use of them seems to have degenerated to A) fancier/easier
interface to web-search; B) Brainstorming on new ideas; C) Burning off
my excess-ideation energy.
I have also used it effectively to *re* start programming projects which
I've abandoned, bringing me back up to speed on syntax more efficiently
than 1) RTFM; 2) cut-and-try with compile/execute tools.
Caveats:
A) I have never been (known to me) fooled by their propensity to
"make shit up"... either I am skeptical enough or already have
enough knowledge that they haven't slipped anything past me, though
they have 'tried". Or maybe they are slicker than I know?
B) Given that I am pretty loosey-goosey in my own flights of fancy
when it comes to Brainstorming, I don't feel they have ever lead
*me* astray. If *they* could be lead astray, it would be more
likely that direction.
C) Mary (and FriAM and several other friends) don't have to endure
*as much* of my "flying off in all directions at once"
Coding: Once I've got my sea (C? Java/Python/JavaScript/PS/???)
legs back under me, GPT is only minimally useful (usually to outline
an algorithm I'm familiar with but have forgotten or am
too-lazy-to-reconstruct details of) and generally distracting,
creating tangents and dead-ends that I don't need.
Of course GPT-5 and/or SteroidBard will roll out some day and I'll
either be re-enamored or so jaded as to not-bother... who knows?
I'm curious what others here experience with these tools. SG is the
only one I know to be as (or more) engaged than I am, but I suspect a
few here have done some time with these tools from each of your unique
perspectives?
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