Quote:
Originally Posted by kermitology
So, I'm going to re-iterate, my issue here is that AI tutors shouldn't be trusted, because there is no qualifier that the information provided by the model is correct. It's way to easy to generate incorrect information, but we're seeing more and more evidence of people implicitly trusting AI when they ask questions, search for information, and providing summaries. It's a shortcut that is skipping the struggle that's required to properly consume information.
I loved a post I saw on Bluesky positioning this in Excel. If you have a formula in an Excel spreadsheet that is wrong 15% of the time, but you don't know which one.. why would you use that?
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I suppose my issue with the argument is threefold:
1. It doesn't hold up over time
Maybe this was true of models a year ago (even then... seems high), but the models available to us today cut this number way down. Aided by a competent person (like a teacher alongside the helper AI), issues drop well below problematic levels.
2. Humans are likely far more error prone (and they too rarely accept or recognize when they're wrong)
I run absolutely every single thing I do for a client through an LLM, and the number of things it catches is wild. Now, you could say "it sounds like you're bad at what you do," and maybe! But also, most people suck dreadfully at what they do.
The stuff it's caught on my behalf is nothing short of amazing. Contract issues that were present for almost a decade, misinterpreted client instruction, autocorrected words that were undetectable by spellcheckers...
3. People are already using it to obvious benefit
My friends who are using it properly (very important) are absolutely lapping their co-workers. My doctor friend is correctly adjusting diagnoses of her patients based on history she missed. My kids' test scores have seen an uptick since using it to create complimentary study guides.
We can debate the theoretical problems (of which, several keep me up at night), but we should probably also acknowledge that those who are using these tools well are beginning to pull away.