[hughesjj]

100% this. It's also game changing for learning a new language (of any type, not just programming), any of the boring parts of software engineering like most programming tasks (it's like a personal intern -- sure you have to check their work and the quality is all over the place but still, dang I love it), and even a bit of therapy.

At worst/minimum, It's the ultimate rubber duck.

(To be clear, I'm exclusively using gpt-4)

[ElCapitanMarkla]

Learning a new language is a really cool use case. Especially when it gets to the point where you can talk with it and it corrects pronunciation, etc. even just the practise of random conversation is a cool idea.

[jgwil2]

Can you elaborate on how you've used it for natural language learning?

[gwd]

I'm studying Chinese. If I run across a sentence whose grammar I can't parse, I paste it in and say, "Can you explain this sentence?" It will usually break it down, phrase by phrase, explaining what each thing means and how it fits within the whole. If it doesn't, you can ask "Can you break it down in more detail?" If there's a specific word you don't understand, you can say "What is the word X doing in this sentence?"

You have to watch it, because it does hallucinate (at least, GPT-3.5; I'm using the API and haven't been given access to GPT-4 yet). In one instance, it said that a series of characters meant X in Chinese, when in fact I happened to know it was just a transliteration of a different language, and not in Chinese at all. But it's still helpful enough to be worth using.

You can also ask it to give you example sentences with a specific word; and I've had some success asking it to generate sentences in which then word is used in the same way, or with the same grammar structure.

[thih9]

> and even a bit of therapy

I’d be very careful with relying on gpt for anything health related; I’m not saying there can’t be benefits, just that the risks increase exponentially.

[dr_dshiv]

Risky vs what? Googling? Not doing anything? Waiting for a therapist? It’s extremely sensitive to human emotional dynamics. It is also extremely biased toward non violent communication, which is very hard for humans.

[chrbr]

Agree, and for things like cognitive behavioral therapy, where the "rules" are well-known and well-represented in its training corpus, it's amazing.

[gabrieledarrigo]

Guys, you are really crazy. Please find a real therapist with experience.

[dr_dshiv]

In the context of mental health, telling people they are crazy and they need a real therapist, is generally a poor word choice, at least.

[ativzzz]

Personally I wouldn't use gpt as a therapist but I've seen enough bad or useless therapists in my time to say that it's worth a shot for most people, especially if you need help now

[thih9]

As risky as any other health related self help, plus the added risk of unreliability.

When GPT proves itself to be reliably beneficial, then therapists will use it or recommend it themselves. Until then it’s an experimental tool at best.

[maremp]

I would say self-help is quite unreliable already, more unreliable doesn’t make it much worse.

The authority argument is pointless. The therapist must value person’s wellbeing above their continued income for this to apply. In theory they should, but it would take a lot to convince me and I would want to know what’s the incentive behind such a recommendation. An to be clear, I’m not saying LLM can be your therapist.