ChatGPT

[mrcharly-YHT]

This seems to be a decent article on the abilities and limitations of ChatGPT

https://www.zdnet.com/article/i-asked-chatgpt-to-write-a-wordpress-plugin-i-needed-it-did-in-less-than-5-minutes/?ftag=TRE-03-10aaa6b&utm_email=74d128290910af174ed6ee1fcb47a52789101efffdbb4bf17c1f3259f4a6c64b&utm_campaign_id=6112111&utm_email_id=9167e1e0c4723b4eb47d069e9332a97b6a34bbc547eaa30143da8f395ef34edb&utm_newsletter_id=92303&medium=email&source=iterable

A lot of junior programmers will be having the same uneasy feeling that weavers had, back in the day.

[ian]

It's interesting. I use it to write snippets of code, but then I'm not very good, so you don't need umpteen boogleflops of processing power to outfox me. A ZX Spectrum could do it. It certainly wouldn't replace a full tidy-haired analyst today, but code is artifactual and it's steadily being moving towards a natural language gig (ah the heady days of Z80 registers) where humans tell a computer what needs to be done in much the same way as they'd instruct anything else. In a way, this seems inevitable.

In other realms, I think it's overhyped, it doesn't create anything, it's just a lot of processing power and massive matrix factorization, it has no internal model of its world. I suppose it remains to sense if sentience is an emergent property through sheer processing power or if there's some kind of special sauce required.

[Kim]

Somebody described it as mansplaining-as-a-service, which seems like a pretty good suggestion of what sort of situations it might be useful for.  If you need to produce confident sounding waffle based on no actual understanding of the subject matter it works quite well.  People are rightly sceptical about its value as a search engine, but I can imagine it working at least as well at dispensing arbitrary knowledge as, say, TikTok^[1].  Its ability to write code is limited, of course, but if you already know what you want to achieve but just aren't sure of the syntax you can probably get results quicker than you can by skim-reading StackOverflow.  It's going to revolutionise cargo cult programming.

On the other hand, I'm not sure filling the internet with AI-generated guff - as will now inevitably happen - is going to improve matters.

I found this article entertaining.  Who thought it was a good idea to let these things loose on Reddit?
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/aPeJE8bSo6rAFoLqg/solidgoldmagikarp-plus-prompt-generation


_{[1] Using TikTok as a search engine is a genuine thing that Young People actually do.  Yes, really.}

[mrcharly-YHT]

My conclusions about skim-reading stackoverflow, is that if you are almost certain of the syntax to use, then it can confirm your choices.

If, however, you don't know, then stackoverflow is utterly useless.

Just as chatGPT can deliver chronically incorrect results to search queries, I suspect it can deliver chronically incorrect code.

Using an AI for queries concerns me. I suspect it will be all too easy to skew results so that, for example, a load of misinformation about climate change is given. After all, it isn't like there are wealthy organisations with an invested interest in skewing public opinion, is it?

[ian]

Stackoverflow is full of blokes who seem to delight in telling you have (a) asked the question wrong and (b) you're dumb for asking the question. The only way to get a helpful response is to post using a female identity. Sit back and wait for the offers of help. It's a community for men who, let's face it, aren't getting any now and won't be getting much in future.

ChatGPT does well for code snippets, but we do analytics, so we're not writing production code.

The thing is, of course, it really is just massive matrix factorization, so it's not really generating anything unique. Just occasionally novel recombinations of what's gone before. It's not nearly as smart as my intern, and research assistant, Sophia Langoustine.

[perpetual dan]

If what you want is basically something that’s been written before, then AI might produce a passable bit of code. Which may well worry quite a lot of juniors writing applications that are a bit like something else.

But ChatGPT will also confidently fail to grasp the logic of the problem and emit something that looks a lot like code but doesn’t actually work. And then insist it’s right. This makes it worse than the average junior because they can usually be persuaded to explain what they were thinking and then correct the problem. Fixing someone else’s code is bad enough, fixing bullshit code will be a nightmare.

The same can be said of lots of other domains where ChatGPT might be used to write a thing, produce pictures, etc. I even saw a judge had been using it to help arrive at a judgement: it needs prompted, in subtle ways. It’ll work sometimes. It’ll be garbage sometimes. Telling one from the other will be the work of someone that might as well have written the thing in the first place.

[trundle]

In other realms, I think it's overhyped, it doesn't create anything, it's just a lot of processing power and massive matrix factorization, it has no internal model of its world. I suppose it remains to sense if sentience is an emergent property through sheer processing power or if there's some kind of special sauce required.

I work on machine learning as my day job, nothing as fancy or enormous as these foundational language models. But I can't overemphasise the point you are making: All statistical models are dumb. All statistical models are wrong. But sometimes statistical models are really useful. It's like training a savant sniffer dog - we have to be REALLY careful how we treat it, and have some idea what on earth those factorised matrices might be made of, because otherwise it's too easy for it to overfit or become biased.

On your last point, I'm really beginning to think we will discover 'common' parts of our intellect are indeed statistically structured through reinforcement learning. Not all of it, and certainly not the essence of being human. But the vast majority of the sentences I write or speak are not novel. They are collections, or combined snippets of sentences I've uttered, or read before. That's very amenable to statistical prediction.

As an ML geek the most impressive thing about ChatGPT as a structure is how on earth you keep such a massively over-parametrised model stable (back of fag packet had 2 weights per sentence!). What normally happens is many of those billions of weights collapse to zero, or trot off to infinity. This renders whole sections of a large model useless with only a small percentage of neurons doing anything useful: Wait - that's my brain after a long bike ride.

As a user of AI, it is of course being over-hyped like all things AI...

...but...

I've stopped using google and stack exchange when I need to search geek knowledge. ChatGPT has been able to provide much better starting points, or specific examples (when I've asked it to be explicit) that actually work. Google's underpants are now in a tangle, because most of my contemporaries are behaving the same way, which they can surely measure and detect.

What does this mean for jobs? You still need to ask questions with a knowledgeable mind, aware of the limitations of an ML model to get the best outcome: That's not a skill Dilbert's pointy haired boss possesses - and there are quite a lot of those around. So if you are knowledgeable and skilful, it is a productivity bonus for some types of knowledge searches.

How long it stays that way is another matter: Just like search engine optimisation, I suspect people have already started to think of ways to bias the model towards their websites be 'infecting' the training material (wikipedia, reddit, etc).

'tis a fascinating time to be working in ML...

[tonycollinet]

Some of the things it can do blow me away.

"Tell me a story about...."

Get a story

"Rewrite it in the style of julia donaldson"

Get the same story - but now in rhyming verses. That is incredible.

[T42]

All I got was "servers busy, try later".

[FifeingEejit]

I keep getting the busy message, really I want to ask it what its thoughts on being asked to exist are.
I'll be disappointed if all I get as an answer is 42

[FifeingEejit]

Finally got in
I started it off with an easy programming task
populate a tree from a database and allow it to sort by 3 different keys

then I asked it why medics don't like scrollbars on websites
it crashed.

basic coding good, understanding users, fail

[Pingu]

TBF that's similar to the responses you get from users.

[FifeingEejit]

TBF that's similar to the responses you get from users.

true.

Also mouse clicks, hate them.
ask why, nothing

[Nuncio]

'Write me a Spenserian sonnet.'

Copy response and ask 'Is this a Spenserian sonnet?'

Answer:
'No, the poem you provided is not a Spenserian sonnet'

[mrcharly-YHT]

The proposed use of chatGPT as a replacement for search concerns me.

Currently, say I'm searching for the meaning of a term, I search for something, get a ton of responses, sift through the sources and often compare some of them to cross-check accuracy. Some sources I trust more than others (e.g. IEEE).

ChatGPT - I just have to trust it gets it right?  Look at the recent Google debacle.

[psyclist]

ChatGPT - I just have to trust it gets it right?

Or change the search terms to request the response includes source references, or ask for a list of options.

[Kim]

ChatGPT - I just have to trust it gets it right?

Or change the search terms to request the response includes source references, or ask for a list of options.

No, because ChatGPT has no concept of sources or references.  It just knows what references look like, and can generate something that looks like a reference, but isn't.

[psyclist]

ChatGPT - I just have to trust it gets it right?

Or change the search terms to request the response includes source references, or ask for a list of options.

No, because ChatGPT has no concept of sources or references.  It just knows what references look like, and can generate something that looks like a reference, but isn't.

As an example, I wanted to have a definition of Communities of Practice. I got the following response when asking for a very good website on the subject:

The website that provides one of the most comprehensive and widely-accepted definitions of communities of practice is the CoP Library at http://www.communities-of-practice.com/. This website is dedicated to communities of practice and provides a variety of resources and information on the topic, including a clear and concise definition. I recommend visiting this website for a deeper understanding of what communities of practice are and how they work.

and then when asking for that definition as the next step:

According to the CoP Library (http://www.communities-of-practice.com/), a community of practice is defined as "a group of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis."

In other words, communities of practice are informal networks of individuals who come together to share their knowledge, skills, and experiences around a specific subject matter. Through regular interaction and collaboration, members of a community of practice are able to advance their understanding of the topic and develop their expertise. The focus of a community of practice is on learning and improving together, rather than just exchanging information or discussing best practices.

I'm still learning my way around the best way to source information. But I think this is one way to identify a source.


EDIT: and to prove your point, that website doesn't seem to exist! Doh!

EDIT 2: but then the sources for ChatGPT are over a year old, so it probably did exist then. I just can't confirm that now!

[Ham]

As a Google fanboi, I got an invite to Bard, which seems to me to be behind the curve at the moment. ChatGPT is better at writing code, I then asked

Can you write an ode to a fairy princess that might be sung by a bard?

This is Bard's output:
Sure, here is an ode to a fairy princess that might be sung by a bard:

Oh, fairy princess, fair and true,
Your beauty lights the sky.
Your eyes are like the stars above,
Your hair is like the night.

Your wings are like the petals of a rose,
Your skin is like the moon.
You dance upon the wind and sing,
A song that fills the air.

You are a creature of magic and light,
A creature of dreams.
You bring joy to all who see you,
And hope to all who know you.

Oh, fairy princess, fair and true,
We love you so.

Then,
What tune would you sing that to?

I would sing that ode to a fairy princess to the tune of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The song is a beautiful and hopeful melody that would perfectly capture the magic and wonder of a fairy princess.

So, not the highest score for rhyme and metre, and a poor suggestion for a  tune (arguably more interesting writing?)


I had to try ChatGPT

Of course! Here's an ode to a fairy princess that a bard might sing:

Oh fairy princess, fair and bright
A vision that outshines the light
Your beauty and grace doth inspire
All those who gaze upon your attire

Your wings so delicate and fine
A reflection of your soul divine
In flight you soar, so free and fair
And fill our hearts with wonder and care

Oh fairy princess, with eyes so bright
You bring joy to the darkest of night
Your laughter like a sweet refrain
That fills our hearts with bliss again

Your magic fills our world with light
A beacon in the endless night
We hail you, oh princess of the fairies
And sing your praises, oh queen of the faeries

So let the winds carry this song
Of a princess so fair and strong
May it echo through the ages long
And be remembered forevermore in song.

And then
what tune would you sing that to?

As an AI language model, I don't have the ability to create original tunes, but the ode could be sung to a tune similar to a traditional Celtic ballad or folk song, with a slow and melodic melody that evokes the mystical and magical atmosphere of the fairy world.

[Vernon]

The latter one does seem to be channelling William Topaz McGonagall quite strongly.

[FifeingEejit]

Stackoverflow is full of blokes who seem to delight in telling you have (a) asked the question wrong and (b) you're dumb for asking the question. The only way to get a helpful response is to post using a female identity. Sit back and wait for the offers of help. It's a community for men who, let's face it, aren't getting any now and won't be getting much in future.

ChatGPT does well for code snippets, but we do analytics, so we're not writing production code.

The thing is, of course, it really is just massive matrix factorization, so it's not really generating anything unique. Just occasionally novel recombinations of what's gone before. It's not nearly as smart as my intern, and research assistant, Sophia Langoustine.

Stackoverflow is also great for telling you to do it another way
"Why are you still using Asp.net you should be using ASP.Super"


I asked Google Bard a question that ChatGPT failed on

"Why do medics hate scrollbars in medical software"
It came up with a decent explanation as to why scrollbars are bad for data visibility, but not the real one...


I must admit I've used chatGPT to remind me how to write safe recursion
and how JDBC works
It couldn't create me the data model I needed though I wasn't feeding it a requirements spec

[FifeingEejit]

The latter one does seem to be channelling William Topaz McGonagall quite strongly.

EPIC FAIL

Sure, here is a poem in the style of William Topaz McGonagle about the River Tay:

The River Tay, a wondrous sight,
Flows east and north to meet the sea.
It rises in the Highlands, high and bright,
And winds its way through Scotland free.

It passes through Loch Tay and Dunkeld,
And Perth, where it becomes tidal.
Its banks are lined with trees and flowers,
And its waters are a deep blue tide.

The Tay is home to salmon and trout,
And otters and herons too.
It's a place to fish and swim and boat,
And enjoy the beauty of the view.

So come and see the River Tay,
A wondrous sight, a wondrous place.
It's a part of Scotland's heritage,
And a sight that you will always grace.


Distinctly lacking "The Tay, The Tay, The Silvry Tay, It runs from Perth to Dundee twice a day"

[Mr Larrington]

Doesn’t even mention the railway bridge either.

Fail.

[T42]

As a Google fanboi, I got an invite to Bard, which seems to me to be behind the curve at the moment. ChatGPT is better at writing code, I then asked

Can you write an ode to a fairy princess that might be sung by a bard?

Suggest trying that again and adding "strictly following the rules of rhyme and metre".

[Ham]

As a Google fanboi, I got an invite to Bard, which seems to me to be behind the curve at the moment. ChatGPT is better at writing code, I then asked

Can you write an ode to a fairy princess that might be sung by a bard?

Suggest trying that again and adding "strictly following the rules of rhyme and metre".

Sure, here is an ode to a fairy princess that might be sung by a bard, strictly following the rules of rhyme and metre:

Ode to a Fairy Princess

Oh, fairy princess, so fair and free,
With your wings of light and your magic wand,
You charm the world with your beauty and grace,
And make our hearts sing with your songs.

You fly through the air on your gossamer wings,
And dance in the moonlight with the stars,
And grant our wishes with your magic touch,
And make our dreams come true.

Oh, fairy princess, we love you so,
For your beauty and grace and your magic ways,
And we hope that you will always be near,
To bring us joy and happiness.

Thank you for being our fairy princess,
And for making our lives so special.
We love you more than words can say,
And we will always cherish your memory

On the positive side, at least Bard has killed the thing in the end, for which added points are de