Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by swexbe 1145 days ago
If you hit yourself with a hammer, that’s your fault because you did something wrong. Comparatively, you can pose a completely correct and unambiguous question to ChatGPT and still get a wrong answer. I don’t like this implicit shifting of blame to the user when it’s the tool that is flawed.
2 comments
brokencode 1145 days ago
The design of the hammer makes it easy to miss the nail, and you need some skill in order to use it effectively. A nail gun is an example of a better tool for driving nails, since it’s faster and allows for greater accuracy.

Similarly, you can ask ChatGPT for an answer and it might get something wrong. It takes some skill to know how to interpret and verify the response. If a user takes the response as truth without question, it’s partially the user’s fault.

link
swexbe 1145 days ago
But it's not the users fault if the question is correct and unambiguous. To continue with the hammer analogy, that's like landing a perfect hit on a nail and the hammer's head somehow falls off and richochets into the user's eye.
link
brokencode 1145 days ago
I just don’t see what point you are trying to make here. Yes, ChatGPT can give the wrong answer given a correct input, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a useful tool.

Think about how GPS can give a bad route, especially if there is construction or snow on the road.

Or how keyboard autocorrect sometimes changes what you wrote into something silly and wrong, even if you originally spelled the word correctly.

Or how OCR and speech-to-text software sometimes makes mistakes.

Or how Google Translate uses unnatural or incorrect word choices sometimes.

Are these not useful tools even though they get things wrong?

link
swexbe 1145 days ago
> Or how keyboard autocorrect sometimes changes what you wrote into something

> silly and wrong, even if you originally spelled the word correctly.

> Or how OCR and speech-to-text software sometimes makes mistakes.

> Or how Google Translate uses unnatural or incorrect word choices sometimes.

When you point this out no one will jump in to defend them. If you say the same about ChatGPT your inbox will suddenly be full of people telling you you're just using it wrong (see this reply chain for example).

link
Dylan16807 1145 days ago
It's not the user's fault if they're handed a power tool without training, but it's not the tool's fault either.
link