"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
I read the note. It was accurate. It was comprehensive. It contained no factual errors that I could identify. And I did not recognise it. Now, six weeks later, I was reading someone else’s account of a consultation I had conducted — and I couldn’t recall the patient clearly enough to reconstruct what had been left out.
If you couldn't recall enough to reconstruct what had been left out, then how do you know it was accurate and comprehensive? hmm? HMMMM?
What a nightmare.
When I was younger, I worked exclusively on a v220 (best of the worst) Unix terminal using vi to write programs in c/c++. Yeah I got a little fancy near the end of that with three separate terminals, but the point was I also had memorized an absolutely ridiculous amount of information starting at the syntax rules for four somewhat related languages (bash, c, c++, and whatever the fuck makefile's are) plus hundreds if not thousands of functions in c and c++ without needing to consult documentation or rely on autocomplete to fill in the blanks.
30+ years later I have a command palette tool I absolutely depend on along with degraded typing skills that show whenever I have to type something out completely like a peasant.
This is an interesting story because:
It's basically a best case scenario for LLMs and it still made things worse. Taking notes felt like a tedious thing that kept him from doing his job. But, he discovered that taking notes was part of his job, and if he didn't do it he couldn't properly care for the patients.
Maybe once he realizes why it is that it was failing him, he'll be able to adjust his process so that he can take advantage of the machine learning system. It might be as simple as looking over the results immediately after the consultation and scribbling things in the margins so he doesn't forget the key takeaways. Or, maybe the old note-taking process is simply the best one and the LLM can't offer anything to actually help.
Transcribing your own notes helps data retention. You're revisiting the data, clarifying and rewording, which reinforces it in your memory
Maybe we dhoukdnt be outtong this bullshit where it doesjt bel9ng, which is anywhere?
Username checks out
When i typed it, it was about literacy, but thr real incomprehrnsibility was the drugs we did along the way.
Looks it's slowly wearing off. 👍
The amount I learn every time I code up some mundane tool may at times be small, but the cumulative effect is significant. It's surely how I've reached my current point in my career, and that's how it shall remain when I leave it.
Surrendering the last of our cognition to a tool has dire consequences.
My sister is a teacher. She explains it as her students don't need to know the information in their papers, they need to know how to research, cite, and write their papers. She says she feels sorry for the students who just spit out a paper with an LLM and don't care about the skills they are letting atrophy and will eventually lose. They are losing the ability to think critically and research then take that information and summarize it to convey thoughts and ideas to others.
What happens when a generation of people lose that capability?
More sheep for the wolves.
Practice makes perfect. But if you don’t keep practicing, how are you supposed to get any better?
Medical transcription has been a thing for years, so I find it interesting I don't recall hearing about it until now with AI. I guess it's not as popular a topic.
What he says, however, is a reason I don't like using AI for writing code or design work; I want to learn, know, and remember every part of the systems I have ownership in. Having AI do everything removes that.
It's almost like you need to get dirty in order to learn how to dig a hole.