this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2026
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I tried it on a couple things that are controversial or problematic in the literature and its about what I expected. It parrots the literature, for better or worse. Which means it’s great at getting an overview of the literature and finding citations and stuff. But it’s not gonna magically figure out which papers are quality and which ones are rubbish. It’ll just parrot all of them, even if they contradict each other. Very interesting, and possibly quite a useful tool. But I really wouldn’t use it as an arbiter of truth.
That's all it should do. We're nowhere near an AI that could be an arbiter of truth. Hell, most AI couldn't even be trusted to parrot the literature accurately.
I would find this extremely useful as a tool to help me find sources that I then review myself - similar to how I use Wikipedia. But the danger is in people trying to use it for more.
This is all it’s good for.
Chat bots are a starting place. I find them useful for rubber ducking.
It's nice to be able to blab to the machine about shit I know no one actually wants to listen to. My partner has been saved countless hours of me going in circles about broken code lol.
Unironically it's helped me a lot too. Most people, I think, don't know how it works fundamentally. I found that once I understood the basics, I could ask better questions. It's a starting place rubber duck and can help organize things, it's not magic. Though there's something marvelous about teaching bits of rock and metal language.
https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-doing-and-why-does-it-work/
It seems like a good way to kick off a literature review.