The problem is not the LLMs, but what people are trying to do with them.
They are currently spoons, but people are desperately wishing they were katanas.
They work really well for soup, but they can't cut steak. But they're being hyped as super ninja steak knives, and people are getting pissed when they can't cut steak.
If you give them watery, soupy tasks they can do successfully, they can lighten your workload, as long as you're aware of what they are and aren't good at.
What people want LLMs to be able to do, ie. "Steak" tasks:
write complex documents
apply complex knowledge/rules to a situation
Write complex code and create entire programs based on vague description
What LLMs can currently do ie. "Soup" tasks:
check this document and fix all spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors
summarise this paragraph as dot points
write a python program that sorts my photographs into folders based on the year they were taken
Half of Lemmy is hyping katanas, the other half is yelling "Why won't my spoon cut this steak?!! AI is so dumb!!!"
Update: wow, the pure vitriol pouring out of the replies is just stunning. Seems there are a lot of you out there who have, in one way or another, tied your ego very strongly to either the success or failure of AI.
Take a step back, friends, and go outside for a while.
I grew up in a time when autism was diagnosable, but only if you were in the extreme end of the spectrum. I don't even know if Asperger's was a thing.
Many, many days of my adult life I've wondered if I'm on the (lighter) end of the spectrum. There's still at least a two year waiting period to find out. So many "clues" I can point to from my childhood, but they could also just be coincidences.
With number 1, by the time I got to the hospital my shirt was wringing wet with sweat, vomit, tears, and blood. I took it off and told the ambulance driver to just chuck it in the bin lol
Oh, one other thing; I love the idea of having physical papers that I can spread out on my desk and re-order and play around with, but when you put them back in the boxes, how do you do it? Do you put them in chronological or alphabetical order? And when you want to find one again, do you have to search through hundreds of cards just to find the right one?
I chose obsidian for two basic reasons 1. Easy backups and 2. No physical storage space required. Those are really the biggest bonuses, especially the backups, using the 3-2-1 rule. If I'm going to invest in this system I want to make sure it won't just disappear one day, and with obsidian (or other zettelkasten programs) I can automate that process.
If those things aren't an issue for you then I would recommend that you stick with what you know. Yes, there are lots of fancy things you can do with plugins and so forth on the computer, but the system was designed to work with paper, so I don't see why you can't stick with that, if it's what you prefer.
Plus, the time cost of switching may not be worth it if you already have an extensive system in place.
I'm still not 100% sure I'm doing it right but it has definitely helped me organise and refine what's in my head and see connections and possibilities that I didn't see before, which makes me happy 😊
I might look up some tutorials next, but I don't want to overcomplicate things. With any system there's a point where you end up spending more time fussing with the scaffolding rather than just building the building, if you know what I mean.
The problem is not the LLMs, but what people are trying to do with them.
They are currently spoons, but people are desperately wishing they were katanas.
They work really well for soup, but they can't cut steak. But they're being hyped as super ninja steak knives, and people are getting pissed when they can't cut steak.
If you give them watery, soupy tasks they can do successfully, they can lighten your workload, as long as you're aware of what they are and aren't good at.
What people want LLMs to be able to do, ie. "Steak" tasks:
What LLMs can currently do ie. "Soup" tasks:
Half of Lemmy is hyping katanas, the other half is yelling "Why won't my spoon cut this steak?!! AI is so dumb!!!"
Update: wow, the pure vitriol pouring out of the replies is just stunning. Seems there are a lot of you out there who have, in one way or another, tied your ego very strongly to either the success or failure of AI.
Take a step back, friends, and go outside for a while.