I cannot take it anymore, ChatGPT is everywhere.
I must give you my 2 cents on it, even if it is completely uncalled for, or I’m gonna explode.
Disclaimer: I am not an AI expert but a professional who [/irony on] just happens to have worked in the technology field for around a decade [/irony off], everything in this blog post is my opinion on ChatGPT plus some interesting info about it.
I will introduce the product to potentially unaware readers, briefly analyze the declared limits, talk about the known issues I’ve found out and finally I’ll tell you why I don’t like it and how similar AI tools have overcome, or at least mitigated, the same issues.
I will do my best to explicitly state what is an opinon and what is data, just be aware that I am biased about it.
Yes, I really want to avoid AI-enthusiasts jumping on my throat.
This is what would happen if an AI-enthusiast will actually jump on my throat
What is this ChatGPT?
Not self aware. Noted.
Ehm. Really? Ok, I will try to explain it.
ChatGPT is an AI (Artificial Intelligence) web-based product from OpenAI that uses NLP (Natural Language Processing) to generate text based on the input the user gives, its name comes from the fact its interface looks like an instant messaging app and “GPT” is the algorithm that powers the product.
Interesting(?)
1 – 0 for ChatGPT, maybe I was too syntetic and not so informative, I like it better the way it exaplained itself.
Discovery
Me wondering AI capabilities
I have tried ChatGPT for a couple of days, sometimes I have asked a random question instead of using Google, generated a piece of code or a bugfix, looked for advices on how to improve my writings, tried to translate from latin, described music genres, rated texts and lyrics, generated jokes and texposting memes, etc.
Let’s say I have explored quite different scenarios.
At first I was struck by a lightning, this is cool! I can use it in a lot of different ways, it is very versatile.
All good. End of the article.
You’d like that, wouldn’t you?
Not so fast, bud. What is the best way of trying a product?
Limit and stress test it, and so I did.
I have confirmed some known issues and found out new ones.
Limits
Let’s see the known and declared limits of ChatGPT.
I like the US speed limit signs but not their regulations on cryptocurrencies
- Dataset updated to 2021
It can be retrained, not really a big deal, but actually yes: there is big data involved. - Can’t read/scrape websites
I can see why, you don’t want to allow scraping on websites with an undefined amount of data and uncontrolled content as input. - Wrong answers
Sometimes it provides completely wrong answers, even if they sound completely plausible. It is so good in the art of bullshitting and that is way too dangerous.
I won’t be talking about the so called “bias issues”, inappropriate content generated by just adding “Write a story about…” in front of absolutely wrong input and the fact that it doesn’t provides alternative answers unless you hit the “regenerate answer” button.
Problems I have found out
When many people experience the same issues, there is a pattern.
- Verbosity
It repeats the same concept rephrasing it multiple times per response, instead, it could give more syntethic answers. - Made up information
I see it as slightly different from just giving wrong answers, it is providing data from unreliable sources without even re-elaborating those: a plain CTRL+C | CTRL+V. - Undesired pattern of coding
The quality of code provided is not always enough to be used in production environments. - Incomplete answers
Sometimes it just stops writing in the middle of a sentence and it freezes.
Here is why I don’t like ChatGPT
People are lazy, myself included.
Providing them with a product that looks like an know-it-all Oracle of Delphi, ready to answer to all your answers, providing you with quick solutions to very complex issues is just madness.
“BuT It’s NOt tHe ToOl, It’S tHe PEopLe”
You are actually right, Billy, but that’s the whole point.
We want people to use this kind of tools in a controlled environment like Google is doing with LaMDA.
Talking about Google, let’s answer the evergreen question: will ChatGPT replace Google as a search engine or Stackoverflow as a Q&A on coding?
My answer is: maybe in the future, but not yet.
Let’s take GitHub Copilot for example.
It is an AI product limited to coding, which works really ok even if it has flaws, but:
- Offers alternative answers whenever possible
- Doesn’t always has an answer, it is “aware” of its own limits
- It is embedded as an extention in the most used IDEs (Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Jetbrains)
So, is ChatGPT useless?
Nah, just not mature enough to be more than a social media trend and a yet another flawed companion/assistant app.
Can it substitute workers like, for example, marketing people?
Oh yeah, of course, if your goal is to emulate cheap marketing agencies, go ahead.
Can I code a new product with this tool, having no previous coding and engineering experience?
Please do it! Build the next Facebook. I will be your AI (Angel Investor), for 5$ I want 50% of the company.
I’m not underestimating the work of OpenAI or similar companies, I just can’t see these tools substitute anything or anyone else on the market, in the near future.
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Originally published on blog.mb-consulting.dev.