Microsoft Study Finds Relying on AI Kills Your Critical Thinking Skills
Researchers from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University warn that the more you use AI, the more your cognitive abilities deteriorate.
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You can either use AI to just vomit dubious information at you or you can use it as a tool to do stuff. The more specific the task, the better LLMs work. When I use LLMs for highly specific coding tasks that I couldn't do otherwise (I'm not a [good] coder), it does not make me worse at critical thinking.
I actually understand programming much better because of LLMs. I have to debug their code, do research so I know how to prompt it best to get what I want, do research into programming and software design principles, etc.
I use a bespoke model to spin up pop quizzes, and I use NovelAI for fun.
Legit, being able to say "I want these questions. But... not these..." and get them back in a moment's notice really does let me say "FUCK it. Pop quiz. Let's go, class." And be ready with brand new questions on the board that I didn't have before I said that sentence. NAI is a good way to turn writing into an interactive DnD session, and is a great way to force a ram through writer's block, with a "yeah, and—!" machine. If for no other reason than saying "uhh.. no, not that, NAI..." and then correct it my way.
Like any tool, it's only as good as the person wielding it.
I've spent all week working with DeepSeek to write DnD campaigns based on artifacts from the game Dark Age of Camelot. This week was just on one artifact.
AI/LLMs are great for bouncing ideas off of and using it to tweak things. I gave it a prompt on what I was looking for (the guardian of dusk steps out and says: "the dawn brings the warmth of the sun, and awakens the world. So does your trial begin." He is a druid and the party is a party of 5 level 1 players. Give me a stat block and XP amount for this situation.
I had it help me fine tune puzzle and traps. Fine tune the story behind everything and fine tune the artifact at the end (it levels up 5 levels as the player does specific things to gain leveling points for just the item).
I also ran a short campaign with it as the DM. It did a great job at acting out the different NPCs that it created and adjusting to both the tone and situation of the campaign. It adjusted pretty good to what I did as well.
Can the full-size DeepSeek handle dice and numbers? I have been using the distilled 70b of DeepSeek, and it definitely doesn't understand how dice work, nor the ranges I set out in my ruleset. For example, a 1d100 being used to determine character class, with the classes falling into certain parts of the distribution. I did it this way, since some classes are intended to be rarer than others.
I ran a campaign by myself with 2 of my characters. I had DS act as DM. It seemed to handle it all perfectly fine. I tested it later and gave it scenarios. I asked it to roll the dice and show all its work. Dice rolls, any bonuses, any advantage/disadvantage. It got all of it right.
I then tested a few scenarios to check and see if it would follow the rules as they are supposed to be from 5e. It got all of that correct as well. It did give me options as if the rules were corrected (I asked it to roll damage as a barbarian casting fireball, it said barbs couldn't, but gave me reasons that would allow exceptions).
What it ended up flubbing on later was forgetting the proper initiative order. I had to remind it a couple times that it messed it up. This only happened way later in the campaign. So I think I was approaching the limits of its memory window.
I tried the distilled locally. It didn't even realize I was asking it to DM. It just repeating the outline of the campaign.
It is good to hear what a full DeepSeek can do. I am really looking forward to having a better, localized version in 2030. Thank you for relating your experience, it is helpful. :)
I'm anxious to see it as well. I would love to see something like this implemented into games, and focused solely on whatever game it's in. I imagine something like Skyrim but with a LLM on every character, or at least the main ones. I downloaded the mod that adds it to Skyrim now, but I haven't had the chance to play with it. It does require prompts for the NPC to let you know you're talking to it. I'd love to see a natural thing. Even NPCs carrying out their own natural conversations with each other and not with the PC.
I've also been watching the Vivaladirt people. We need a 4th wall breaking npc in every game when we get a llm like above.
Looking up the Vilvaladirt, I am guessing it is a group of Let's Players who do a Mystery Science Theater 3,000 take on their gameplay? If so, that would be neat.
These guys. Greg the garlic farmer is their 4th wall breaking guy.
I literally created an iOS app with zero experience and distributed it on the App Store. AI is an amazing tool and will continue to get better. Many people bash the technology but it seems like those people misunderstand it or think it’s all bad.
But I agree that relying on it to think for you is not a good thing.
