Comment by clivedup
15 days ago
Consider being curious why people turn to LLMs rather than just going to authoritative sources first.
Sometimes I don't know a topic well enough to even know the right terms, or sources. But an LLM can help me become familiar with relevant concepts, and then I can more easily find the authoritative sources.
Sometimes I don't know a topic well enough to know how far it is from my understanding. An LLM helps me quickly learn how closely I have the relevant foundational knowledge: if it's absolutely gobbledygook, then I realise I've probably bitten off more than I can chew; if I half sounds familiar, then I can more confidently begin independent exploring of authoritative sources.
Consider that I am not talking about people who use LLMs to learn about keywords to search for in other websites, but only regurgitate what the chat told them uncritically.
Sorry, on a re-read of your comment, I realise misinterpreted this.
Worse, I claimed the moral high ground. Lesson learned!
Well said! LLMs are excellent at translating my intent to what the domain's norms and definitions are.
The problem with google'ing 2 years ago was a combination of SEO hijacking and sheer ignorance on the user's end.
Critical thinking is a necessary ingredient regardless of the tools being used