• capital@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    This question betrays either your non-use or misuse of the products available. You’re either just reading the headlines of the screw-ups or you’re just bad at using the tool.

    To directly answer your question:

    • Quick scripts in a variety of languages. Tested before being used on real data/systems.
    • Creating visual graphs of data in python and Jupyter notebooks with no prior knowledge of python itself or the tools it’s running. In this case, I was able to update the way I wanted it to look in natural language, have it suggest code changes, and immediately try them in the notebook with great results.
    • Improving the sentiment of correspondence. Proofread before sending. It has better grammar and flow than a surprising number of correspondences I’ve come across at work. Sure, English may be their second language but it doesn’t change the fact.
    • Quickly finding documentation pertaining to the query which, yes, you need to go read to verify any answers any LLM provides. Anyone using it regularly should know this by now.
    • Quick “do this in command line. What options are required” which is then immediately tested.
    • In one case, a news story was referenced in passing in a podcast I listen to. It stuck with me days later and I wanted to find actual articles written about it. I was able to describe what I was looking for in natural language and included as many details as I could remember and asked it to find articles for me. I found exactly what I was after.

    But were you actually looking for a real response to your question?

    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It’s worse at all programming tasks except boilerplate, especially with its tendency to inject booby traps. Not knowing how to use the programming language it emits becomes a significant problem.

      Comparing a language model to an idiot is unfair to the idiot.

      A normal search engine works for everything else.

      Any well-defined query I’ve ever made of an LLM has resulted in hilariously bad results, but I suppose I was expecting it to do something that I couldn’t already do better myself.