• snooggums@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    LLMs are like a multitool, they can do lots of easy things mostly fine as long as it is not complicated and doesn’t need to be exactly right. But they are being promoted as a whole toolkit as if they are able to be used to do the same work as effectively as a hammer, power drill, table saw, vise, and wrench.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Exactly! LLMs are useful when used properly, and terrible when not used properly, like any other tool. Here are some things they’re great at:

      • writer’s block - get something relevant on the page to get ideas flowing
      • narrowing down keywords for an unfamiliar topic
      • getting a quick intro to an unfamiliar topic
      • looking up facts you’re having trouble remembering (i.e. you’ll know it when you see it)

      Some things it’s terrible at:

      • deep research - verify everything an LLM generated of accuracy is at all important
      • creating important documents/code
      • anything else where correctness is paramount

      I use LLMs a handful of times a week, and pretty much only when I’m stuck and need a kick in a new (hopefully right) direction.

      • snooggums@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago
        • narrowing down keywords for an unfamiliar topic
        • getting a quick intro to an unfamiliar topic
        • looking up facts you’re having trouble remembering (i.e. you’ll know it when you see it)

        I used to be able to use Google and other search engines to do these things before they went to shit in the pursuit of AI integration.