Preachers and AI

[Bootstrap]

I wonder how good the AI’s Latin is?

Not bad, actually. Give it a Latin text, ask it questions about that text in Latin, and see how it does. Not perfect, but a lot better than you suspect.

Or better yet, if you want to improve your Latin, tell it to ask you questions in Latin and rate your responses.

[Bootstrap]

I don't go looking to use AI but now it seems enmeshed in regular Google search.

Which is really not very useful for me. I prefer plain web search for searching - https://duckduckgo.com/, it's a different tool than ChatGPT, and each has its own uses. Combining them the way Google did is unhelpful.

DuckDuckGo lets you add the AI summary if you want it - either always, or when you want it. And sometimes I do want the AI summary too.

[JohnH]

It's not just about whether you use AI or Google or Wikipedia or an encyclopedia or whatever. It's about how engaged your mind is, whether you are educating yourself or looking for an easy out. You can use AI to get smarter or dumber, and which you choose is up to you.

Did you naturally choose to use the "It's not X. It's Y" phrasing here, or did the AI suggest that?

(This is one of the most notorious AI tells, which happens with virtually every model in common use today. It seems to be a fundamental characteristic of LLMs.)

[Bootstrap]

It's not just about whether you use AI or Google or Wikipedia or an encyclopedia or whatever. It's about how engaged your mind is, whether you are educating yourself or looking for an easy out. You can use AI to get smarter or dumber, and which you choose is up to you.

Did you naturally choose to use the "It's not X. It's Y" phrasing here, or did the AI suggest that?

(This is one of the most notorious AI tells, which happens with virtually every model in common use today. It seems to be a fundamental characteristic of LLMs.)

I used no AI at all when I wrote that message, or any of my other messages in this thread.

Just pure, unadulterated Bootstrap in those messages.

[JohnH]

I used no AI at all when I wrote that message, or any of my other messages in this thread.

Just pure, unadulterated Bootstrap in those messages.

In that case, we now have two forum participants here who tend to write like LLMs do, which is certainly unusual but within the realm of possibility.

Maybe next we'll have a preacher who talks like an LLM, too. I have wondered for a while if reading a lot of LLM output eventually causes someone to write / speak like they do as well.

[ken_sylvania]

We teach our scholars in school that they should not copy their compositions "thought-for-thought" from an encyclopedia, but rather to note down the facts and then write a new, fresh composition using their own thoughts and wording. If ask AI to help you re-word an awkward sentence are you going to then just slightly rework the AI output and put it into your sermon? If your wife or daughters help you to reword something, hopefully they are comprehending the thought you are trying to convey. AI will never be able to comprehend a thought.

I think the process really, really matters. Depending on how you use it, AI can make you dumber and more passive, or it can make you better informed and sharper. The difference is about engagement.

For instance, when I use AI to reword something, I don't just accept its output, I think about whether it is better or worse than the original, and if so, in what way. I might ask AI to reword it 3 different ways. I try to think about why a sentence lands or does not. Or sometimes I ask the AI to write an outline of what I have written to help give me overview.

Similarly, if I use AI to research something, I still have to decide how I can know which things it said are true, and how I can know that. Often, the "research" I do with AI is mostly a lazy lookup. I know this person said something like this. Where, and what were the exact words? But you really can't trust it to quote completely accurately, so I look it up.

An example from language learning. If you use AI to translate a text, you learn very little. But I know people who have conversations with AI in languages they are trying to learn, asking the AI to correct them.

It's not just about whether you use AI or Google or Wikipedia or an encyclopedia or whatever. It's about how engaged your mind is, whether you are educating yourself or looking for an easy out. You can use AI to get smarter or dumber, and which you choose is up to you.

A few of the people with whom I interact regularly use AI. They all think it makes them smarter and more efficient. It doesn't.

I don't think a person is well positioned to gauge the effect of his own AI usage. It's not at all surprising that you think AI makes you smarter. What would be surprising would be if you came to any conclusion other than that.

[Bootstrap]

I used no AI at all when I wrote that message, or any of my other messages in this thread.

Just pure, unadulterated Bootstrap in those messages.

In that case, we now have two forum participants here who tend to write like LLMs do, which is certainly unusual but within the realm of possibility.

Maybe next we'll have a preacher who talks like an LLM, too. I have wondered for a while if reading a lot of LLM output eventually causes someone to write / speak like they do as well.

Nonsense. Some people really do examine things from many sides, regularly, habitually. Not using the stereotyped LLM formulation you mentioned, and I did not. Examining various sides of something and various possibilities is a regular part of thinking things through.

I think you will find that I have always done this if you look through the archives.

[ken_sylvania]

I used no AI at all when I wrote that message, or any of my other messages in this thread.

Just pure, unadulterated Bootstrap in those messages.

In that case, we now have two forum participants here who tend to write like LLMs do, which is certainly unusual but within the realm of possibility.

Maybe next we'll have a preacher who talks like an LLM, too. I have wondered for a while if reading a lot of LLM output eventually causes someone to write / speak like they do as well.

You think this is an LLM generated song or what?

It's not just about the manger
Where the baby lay
It's not all about the angels
Who sang for him that day
It's not all about the shepherds
Or the bright and shining star
It's not all about the wise men
Who travelled from afar

It's about the cross
It's about my sin
It's about how Jesus came to be born once
So that we could be born again
It's about the stone
That was rolled away
So that you and I could have real life someday
It's about the cross

It's not just about the good things
In this life I've done
It's not all about the treasures
Or the trophies that I've won
It's not about the righteousness
That I've find within
It's all about His precious blood
That saves me from my sin

It's about the cross
It's about my sin
It's about how Jesus came to be born once
So that we could be born again
It's about the stone
That was rolled away
So that you and I could have real life someday
It's about the cross

The beginning of the story
Is wonderful and great
But it's the ending that can save you
And that's why we celebrate

It's about the cross
It's about my sin
It's about how Jesus came to be born once
So that we could be born again
It's about God's love
Nailed to a tree
It's about how every drop of blood
That flowed from Him when it should have been me
It's about the stone
That was rolled away
So that you and I could have real life someday
So that you and I could have real life someday
It's about the cross (it's about the cross)
It's about the cross
It's about the cross
It's about the cross

[Bootstrap]

It's not just about whether you use AI or Google or Wikipedia or an encyclopedia or whatever. It's about how engaged your mind is, whether you are educating yourself or looking for an easy out. You can use AI to get smarter or dumber, and which you choose is up to you.

A few of the people with whom I interact regularly use AI. They all think it makes them smarter and more efficient. It doesn't.

I don't think a person is well positioned to gauge the effect of his own AI usage. It's not at all surprising that you think AI makes you smarter. What would be surprising would be if you came to any conclusion other than that.

Ah, but there are ways to measure whether you are actually getting more and more in control of your subject matter or heading the other way.

For programmers, how well can you answer questions about your codebase, describe the architecture, etc.? There are actually studies that show that even experienced software professionals who use AI in a lazy way start to lose control of their own code, and their skills go downhill. But the opposite also holds - there are ways to use AI well for writing code. They all involve making the programmer think hard through the whole process.

I think this is true for other disciplines. If you are constantly thinking things through, you learn to do so better. If you are just looking for instant answers, you lose the ability to ask where they come from. You can choose smarter or dumber, it's up to you, how you use the tools.

[Bootstrap]

Did you naturally choose to use the "It's not X. It's Y" phrasing here, or did the AI suggest that?

Here's the first message in this thread where I used AI at all. Following Ken's lead ... do you think these texts are AI-generated?

* Hosea 6:6
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
* 1 Samuel 16:7
“People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
* Matthew 9:13 (quoting Hosea)
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
* Matthew 12:7
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
* Matthew 23:23
“You have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.”
* John 6:27
“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.”
* John 6:63
“The flesh counts for nothing; the Spirit gives life.”
* Romans 14:17
“The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
* 1 Corinthians 4:20
“The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
* 2 Corinthians 3:6
“The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
* 1 Peter 3:3–4
“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment… Rather, it should be that of your inner self.”
* Mark 7:15
“Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”