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Comment by exe34

21 days ago

They're pretty AI to me . I've been using chat gpt to explain things to me while learning a foreign language, and a native speaker has been overseeing the comments from it. it hasn't said anything that the native has disagreed with yet.

I reckon you’re proving their point. You’re using a large language model for language-specific tasks. It ought to be good at that, but it doesn’t mean it is generic artificial intelligence.

  • generic artificial intelligence is a sufficiently large bag of tricks. that's what natural intelligence is. there's no evidence that it's not just tricks all the way down.

    I'm not asking the model to translate from one language to another - I'm asking it to explain to me why a certain word combination means something specific.

    it can also solve/explain a lot of things that aren't language. bag of tricks.

Like the OP said "LLMs are bar none the absolute best natural language processing and producing systems we’ve ever made".

They may not be good at much else.

Yes, but your use case is language. I use LLMs for all kind of stuff from programming, creative work, etc. so I know it's useful even elsewhere. But as the generic term "AI" is being used, people expect it to be good at everything a human can be good at and then whine about how stupid the "AI" is.

I tried the same with another foreign language. Every native speaker have told the answers are crap.

  • could you give an example?

    • En búlgaro, el equivalente a *"tocayo"* (una persona que tiene el mismo nombre que otra) no tiene una traducción exacta de una sola palabra, pero se puede expresar de varias maneras:

      1. *"съименник" (suimennik)* – Es el término más cercano y significa literalmente "persona con el mismo nombre". 2. *"човек със същото име" (chovek sŭs sŭshtoto ime)* – Se traduce como "persona con el mismo nombre". 3. *"тезка" (tezka)* – Una forma coloquial más rara, influenciada por el ruso.

      En el uso cotidiano, los búlgaros suelen decir algo como *"Имаме едно и също име"* (Imame edno i sashto ime), que significa *"Tenemos el mismo nombre"*.

      Here the AI says there is no translation, not only there is one, I use it frequently: Адаш https://rechnik.chitanka.info/w/%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%88

    • Twitch Streamer/Youtuber Ludwig is currently motorcycling across Japan and has used ChatGPT to help him learn Japanese for the last ~year (he previously had a tutor before that). ChatGPT told and repeatedly reassured him a common phrase for a more grateful thank you is あなたの助けに恩に着る which a native speaker (I am not) explained is "some Samurai shit" for being indebted to you. Whenever he uses it in his vlog series, it usually results in a confused reaction or laughs from the recipient.

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