Seeing the Prompt
I’ll start this by admitting that I haven’t actually tried ChatGPT (or any LLM beyond trying to engage Pi into talking about books with me a few months ago), but the end statement of this essay summed up exactly how I feel: I would rather see a person’s prompt than the LLM’s output.
I would rather see how people are using the tool. I’d rather see people’s Google searches and see how they word them or use operators than see the answer. I am so curious to learn how to optimize the questioning, but I’m not really excited to read what the LLM finds.
I will get around at some point to checking out ChatGPT or another LLM — I’m not against it as a tool. But I find people’s usage of it more interesting than the tool itself.
Do you use an LLM? What do you use it for?
4 comments
I have not used ChatGPT or any other AI app. I will admit I have looked at the AI results at the top of the Google search results page, but with a large grain of salt. You’re right, though, I do find it interesting to hear how people are using it.
Ditto Loribeth’s response. I’m sceptical of how they learn. The willingness they have to lie, etc. I do frequently see a fbk page where people use AI to edit photos etc. It is amazing how accurate and inaccurate they can be. (And how hilarious and inventive some people are). I’m now very sceptical of images as a result!
I have used ChatGPT to help me with some small writing tasks. I’m an engineer, so writing is not my strength. I’ve used it to help write a recognition for an employee and a message for a sympathy card. I often find the output to be a bit wordy and repetitive, but it gives me a good starting point.
Apparently ChatGPT and similar models use a lot of energy, so I am concerned about using them for sheer entertainment. I also like using my actual, factual brain to create emails! I understand why the technology is useful for some purposes, but I wish more folks would think before just using AI for simple tasks.