Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Conversation on Mastodon about ChatGPT errors wasting non-users' time
Starting with this message: https://masto.ai/@oskay@mastodon.social/109909759437786286
Windell Oskay
@oskay@mastodon.social
Someone wrote in asking for technical support, asking for a very specific installer for a specific piece of software, apparently no longer available for download from our site.
Here's the weird part: Neither this software nor an installer for it have ever existed. (Was this software someone else wrote, that we're just hearing about for the first time?)
After several back and forth messages asking for detail and where they heard about this software, it turns out that it all came from ChatGPT.
@oskay@mastodon.social
Someone wrote in asking for technical support, asking for a very specific installer for a specific piece of software, apparently no longer available for download from our site.
Here's the weird part: Neither this software nor an installer for it have ever existed. (Was this software someone else wrote, that we're just hearing about for the first time?)
After several back and forth messages asking for detail and where they heard about this software, it turns out that it all came from ChatGPT.
Some of the responses:
Good grief. How long before there’s a class action lawsuit for time wasting?
Oh god I knew the punchline of this story before I got to the end and was horrified I was right. (Which got a "Welcome to the rest of our lives" response from Oskay)
explained to someone that the version of EM wave theory they learned from talking to ChatGPT got basic concepts wrong and that all the words they use are right, but the meanings have nothing to do with what actual electrical engineers mean when they say "antenna", "transmission line", "characteristic impedance"…
Seriously hope they manage to unlearn all this.
(And after Oskay said " Ouch" )
Could have been worse!
They asked on electronics.stackexchange.com, so there were multiple people trying to explain the problem (and the question itself would have been tolerable, a survivable "started reading the book at page 40 the night before the exam" kind of mixup of terminology and best-guessing-from-reading-somewhat-correct-notes-of-fellow-student).
Effect was that the specific site banned not only bot-generated answers, but also questions based primarily on bot statements.
Seriously hope they manage to unlearn all this.
(And after Oskay said " Ouch" )
Could have been worse!
They asked on electronics.stackexchange.com, so there were multiple people trying to explain the problem (and the question itself would have been tolerable, a survivable "started reading the book at page 40 the night before the exam" kind of mixup of terminology and best-guessing-from-reading-somewhat-correct-notes-of-fellow-student).
Effect was that the specific site banned not only bot-generated answers, but also questions based primarily on bot statements.
Skynet isn't gonna kill is, it's just gonna use up all our goddamn time
ChatGPT: An artificial "intelligence" tool that just makes shit up... what could go wrong?
Lolol I giggle every time I read a story like this. I enjoy asking chat GPT technical questions but I have learned to treat it like a compulsive liar. I might learn something but it’s more concerned with the story and looking helpful.
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
