‘maybe our technology will eventually be good enough that we can bypass words altogether and communicate with computers directly with our thoughts. Until...’
In part, you are correct. It goes beyond knowing the question to ask though. If the questioner has no prior knowledge of a particular subject, or any for that matter, how do they know the machine, which is simply a predictive tool, knows the answer? How do they know when it's hallucinating? And these LLMs are rather good at that. If one does not know how to question or how to debate, then one isn't learning, they are simply absorbing. There's a difference. We should not trust that with which we cannot debate.
I’ve found that ChatGPT can be quite good at giving me an overview of a topic that I can then dive deeper into the specific parts that I’m most curious about. For example, “I want to study Buddhism. Give me an overview of the main tenets of Buddhism.” Or “explain how treasury bills work. How is their interest rate determined?”
However, I still have to be the one to decide those are the topics worth me learning about.
I’m looking forward to the day when LLMs can synthesize together all the conversations that I have (which are currently spread across many different ChatGPT threads) and both remember more about my interests and suggest new topics for me to learn about.
‘maybe our technology will eventually be good enough that we can bypass words altogether and communicate with computers directly with our thoughts. Until...’
I sincerely hope this never eventuates.
In part, you are correct. It goes beyond knowing the question to ask though. If the questioner has no prior knowledge of a particular subject, or any for that matter, how do they know the machine, which is simply a predictive tool, knows the answer? How do they know when it's hallucinating? And these LLMs are rather good at that. If one does not know how to question or how to debate, then one isn't learning, they are simply absorbing. There's a difference. We should not trust that with which we cannot debate.
I’ve found that ChatGPT can be quite good at giving me an overview of a topic that I can then dive deeper into the specific parts that I’m most curious about. For example, “I want to study Buddhism. Give me an overview of the main tenets of Buddhism.” Or “explain how treasury bills work. How is their interest rate determined?”
However, I still have to be the one to decide those are the topics worth me learning about.
I’m looking forward to the day when LLMs can synthesize together all the conversations that I have (which are currently spread across many different ChatGPT threads) and both remember more about my interests and suggest new topics for me to learn about.
Can you name a great writer who isn't a great thinker?