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by brettpro 17 days ago
This isn't really helping to be nice, though. It's outsourcing the hard part in a way that presents as "nice and helpful" and frames yourself as knowledgeable, skilled, experienced, or trustworthy in a way that doesn't match reality.
1 comments

Suppose I'm trying to explain how a project works and as part of that I need to explain about an algorithm I found in a book, are people going to object if I say "Here's an explanation from <cite to book>" and quote a few paragraphs?

Suppose instead I found that algorithm by describing the task I needed an algorithm for and asking an AI for the most used algorithms for that task. I picked one of its suggestions, read up on it to make sure what the AI said about it is correct, and then I implemented it. If when explaining how the project works to others I say "Here is a good explanation from <cite to AI> on how this algorithm works. I have verified that this is accurate", and quote the AIs explanation how is that different from the book case?

something akin to degrees of separation from the source, considering people have been complaining about this when it was "here's an explanation from google/wikipedia/stackoverflow" long before llms
Yeah, essentially. Just the first google hit without checking if it actually fits the use case. Or just throwing you a insanely long article about a topic. Maybe tell me what section it's in, or briefly tell me why it's relevant.
> "Here is a good explanation from <cite to AI> on how this algorithm works. I have verified that this is accurate", and quote the AIs explanation how is that different from the book case?

I mean this is fine really, as long it's clear to me that you've actually done something with the content. And it's okay when I already know you and know that you actually do the research on the topics the LLM retrieves for you. It's much different when you don't know each other and you just get some generated response. I have no clue if you've digested the information and verified it before giving it to me, or just tossed it over the fence.

The big issue I have with it in this thread is things like blog posts and comments that seem straight up copied from the LLM. At that point the blog seems meaningless to me. It's not the author's work, it's ChatGPT or Claude, so why would I bother reading their prompt's output. I go to a blog for their writing, not the LLM.

Similarly, I go to a concert to hear the artists. I would be very uninterested to a see an empty stage and hearing an AI generated "live version" blasting through the speakers.