The centre of the Universe
What’s a good use of ChatGPT?
Sometimes it feels a bit vague and magic, or a good way to put confidential data at risk. On a UK IT Leaders call yesterday (Vegas rules) somebody mentioned it was very handy for quick code reviews where there wasn’t any great documentation (yes I know, rare occurrence…) and that’s a great use case. It’s still a very Techy example though.
I read the post linked below and thought it was a fantastic example of how to use ChatGPT, because it’s a great example of the process - not the end product. It enhances not replaces (I’d argue).
Matt wanted to write an iOS app that just showed an arrow which pointed to the centre of the Milky Way. As someone with an Astrophysicist in the family I can get on board with that. But he didn’t know how to write iOS apps.
What he did know, was how to break down and work through the problem, and get ChatGPT to assist. It’s worth a read, but this really resonated:
“The experience is more like very, very good autocomplete, or very, very good spellcheck: I can understand the output even if I couldn’t get there on my own … You never want to give ChatGPT big goals where it has to figure out the way on its own. Then both of you will be confused. Intermediate stepping stones and being sure of your boots with each stride, that’s the way.”
Bingo.
Some final thoughts though:
I still have large concerns about the Environmental impact of this Technology - Data Centres should not need their own nuclear power plant. I still think there’s a significant risk to privacy, confidential data and copyright. Please be careful with the data you use. It’s still not perfect. Check and check again. My current favourite example is ask it for the last eight digits of Pi…
But if you keep saying ‘No’ in Technology, folk tend to go around you or find someone to say ‘Yes’. Be pragmatic, balance risk and educate.
And finally, next time we meet ask me which way it is to the centre of the Galaxy! Well I think it’s cool.