Comment by latexr
6 days ago
> despite the possibility of being misled occasionally.
There is a chasm of difference between being misled occasionally (Wikipedia) and frequently (LLMs). I don’t think you understand how much effort goes on behind the scenes at Wikipedia. No, not everyone can edit every Wikipedia page willy-nilly. Pages for major political figures often can only be edited with an account. IPs like those of iCloud Private Relay are banned and can’t anonymously edit the most basic of pages.
Furthermore, Wikipedia was always honest about what it is from the start. They managed expectations, underpromised and overdelivered. The bozos releasing LLMs talk about them as if they created the embryo of god, and giving money to their religion will solve all your problems.
20 years ago though, I think our teachers had the right idea when they said Wikipedia wasn't a reliable source and couldn't be counted. It's much better these days but I checked an old revision (the article on 9/11) the other day and barely anything was sourced, there were parts written in first person, lots of emotive language.
> I don’t think you understand how much effort goes on behind the scenes at Wikipedia.
I understand Wikipedia puts effort in, but it’s irrelevant. As a user, you can never be sure that what you are reading on Wikipedia is the truth. There are good reasons to assume that certain topics are more safe and certain topics are less safe, but there are no guarantees. The same is true of AI.
> Wikipedia was always honest about what it is from the start.
Every mainstream AI chatbot includes wording like “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.”