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Comment by snookeredpoot | Hacker News Reader

Your opinion, like many others, is wildly misinformed.

It’s not “just managers”. People are legit using copilot and it is saving time and helping develop better code. There are 100+ engineers in my company using it. And it’s not just copiloting, it is better than Wikipedia for explaining RFCs or academic papers. That is very important for ramping people when they can interactively ask hundreds of questions to learn about something without bothering top engineers.

You really need to actually get some real world experience as not just pop off.

Anyone who refers to LLMs as “stochastic parrots” has made their choice and is not interested in understand what areas can benefit and what areas cannot. They’re just scared and ignorant.

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Copilot? I personally found Copilot pretty useless. And very distracting trying to constantly incorrectly guess what I was doing.

I do use chatgpt/claude for quickly creating first draftw of frontend pages as I find it quicker, but I have to do extensive edits to get it right. But anything non-boiler plate I am faster writing it myself.

I have also quickly found it is a stochastic parrot but that's ok for boilerplate stuff. It is useless at anything complicated and quickly starts hallucinating methods, parameters and functions when you point out problems with the code.

I am beginning to believe that anything niche, where it can't steal from its training data, and it will always be utterly useless.

I am curious how you feel it's so important to 100+ engineers, how do you use it that makes it effective for you?

Thank you! Maybe there is just a divide between engineers working on deep complex topics and those trying to setup their 17th Django app.

LLMs are a totally useful tool! They definitely help me write all the bash scripts I consistently forget.

But the deep stuff where the value lies? It starts to fall apart quickly.

You put this better than I could have. I am really impressed by LLMs' ability to respond to a prompt with code which compiles and runs. That's a hugely impressive result. But it doesn't mean the technorapture is just around the corner. There's a vast gulf between what LLMs can do currently and what skilled people do, and it's not "obvious" that there's some path from here to a world in which LLMs become some kind of superintelligent engineer-gods. It could be physically impossible, for all we know. That's why the pseudoreligious twaddle gets under my skin so much--it's the naive assumption that progress is linear, instead of a jumpy "fits and starts" process of accidental discoveries building on one another (or encountering dead ends). There's no way to know whether these things can be improved enough to be truly useful for real work and pretending it's "right around the corner" won't necessarily make it happen.

Yeah yeah, I've heard all of this a million times. Yet, I open up Claude and it keeps forgetting to not give me React code after I remind it multiple times to not give me React code. It still randomly drops all context of the conversation at some point and enters a loop where it regurgitates the same answers it already gave me. It still gets basic facts wrong, even when the reference/factsheet is provided to it a sentence ago. The code the juniors and mediors are shitting out with the help of LLMs is all dogwater that doesn't pass the sniff test, and the worst part is they themselves can't explain half the lines they're shoveling.

I suspect the next refrain is gonna be along the lines of me using it wrong, or using the wrong model, or the wrong prompt, or this or that. At the end of the day, if even after arduously trying to use it pretty much daily I still find all the models so far useless for real work, then no amount of fanboyism is going to convince me to disregard the reality of it as I experience it.

I can write the most insanely in-depth prompt on the planet (wasting 10 minutes of my time in the process), and 9 times out of 10 the reply I get is barely any more coherent than a single sentence along the lines of "Give me X" would've given me back.

> it is better than Wikipedia for explaining RFCs or academic papers.

I dread the future we're creating where people are relying on LLMs to parse RFCs or papers.

> Anyone who refers to LLMs as “stochastic parrots” has made their choice and is not interested in understand what areas can benefit and what areas cannot.

You're arguing with a strawman as I haven't used the word stochastic or parrot anywhere in the comment you're replying to or have implied anything of the sort about LLMs, and I'm even saying that I don't think it's completely useless, just not nearly as useful as the hype would lead one to imagine. Did you perhaps put my comment through an LLM and thus were arguing against imaginary points that I never made?

NOTED (Sincere thanks)

> I dread the future we're creating where people are relying on LLMs to parse RFCs or papers.

Amen & Hallelujah (forgive) We're ALL Jock Tamshun's bairns ...

Hit yer FLAGGIT... I amn Scot's Arysh, that means "G__ Children"

Sad fact, this "future" got ahead of us.

Still, this story is far from over.

It is not we were sleeping only that AI / LLM has no need to.

Run THIS though whatever "DAVE I CAN'T DO... " boogalooz

Make WE understand.

How can this AI / LLM do" (PLz Follow along)

#1 slake THIRST ~ no drinking water, living beings? SHOW US put a water tank in a truck? What profit will ye' boogz gain there?

Please show verifiable proof AI has mitigated this NEED.

#2 How does said AI / LLM feed those STARVING rain Manna -food- (please forgive Western ref) for starved refugees? Wilderness?

Please present tangible proof.

#3 Explain (like I AM 5) how's this Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot BOOGALOO able to concieve a child?

Eaux dear, & hayell yeah I forkin went there but MANY would be grateful to see verifiable evidence this has been accomplished.

WE'll wait but we DO NEED TO KNOW

MAKE US UNDERTAND

Provide verifible tangible physical evidence.

What's 'AI' (et alia) bring to mitigate NEED.

Water,

Food.

Survival?

For Human LIFE?

Riddle US that, AI?

H-Sapiens (?) is no "Special species" What doth AI offer to ALL life on this 3r'd rock from the sun?

SHOW US HOW YOU CAN

Sincere Respects,

Virginwidow

AKA An0n.1984 AKA Ånne Äůghnimax

P.S. (post script, kids)

Per GBNF Teacher:

G__ Forgives. OUTLAWS DON'T. We simply help make certain nobody misses their interview

NOTED (with Gratitude)

> I dread the future we're creating where people are relying on LLMs to parse RFCs or papers.

Amen & Hallelujah (plz allow western reference)

Arseh0lez in the mix? go ahead, Hit yer FLAGGIT

We're ALL Jock Tamshun's Bairns ... Meanin' "ALL G__ Children"

Myself are Scot's Arysh. Readers might be in China, Iraq, N. Korea. It still stands ~ ALL meanin' ALL Jock Tamshun's bairn. All means ALL, ya see?

That said, this story is far from over.

'AI' don't know peanut butter from cat poop

How'd AI / LLM do for IRL (in real life) Jeopardy - NO play on words.

Let's try THIRST (no water) for $100, Alex.

Has AI / LLM ever slaked THIRST ~ no drinking water? Living beings?? Did ever 'AI/LLM' put a water tank on a pickup truck? SHOW US (or What profit will ye' boogaloo's gain there?) We're open minded, simply SHOW US

How about Starvation for $500, Alex? WHOOPEE The Daily Double!

Has AI / LLM EVER fed the STARVING Or rain Manna (overlook Western ref) upon starving refugees? Wilderness? Please, (please?) show factual examples? PLEASe show us what AI/LLM has done to remedy this NEED

Let's try immaculate conception for $700 - Invoke our absent SArCASM flag -

Explain how's this Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot BOOGALOO AI might approximate companionship much less intimacy never mind concieve life. Merely curious

This is a Genuine need of all life forms (cockroaches included) even P. Dorov (telegram) ~ end snarkasm ~

Does there exist ANY verifiable evidivence supporting how this "AI / LLM" provides any HELP for the needs of ALL life, including even primates?

MAKE US UNDERTAND

Exactly (and be specific)

What does 'AI' (et alia) bring to mitigate fundamental NEED.

Water,

Food.

Company.

LIFE?

HOW DOES tHIS HELP

Genuinely & with Deep Sincerety we ask?

Sincere Respects,

Virginwidow

AKA An0n.1984 AKA Ånne Äůghnimax

And... While we're at it kids (acronyms baffle old folks) try GFOD. Try Urban Dictionary, Wikipedia. Giggle

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