Confessions of a researchaholic

I tested an electric car’s full self-driving today and found it impressive.

After entering the destination, the car planned the route and drove itself, including turning, signaling, changing and merging lanes, observing traffic lights and signs (stop, speed limit), and avoiding pedestrians and cyclists.
I can manually change the default behaviors by signaling and setting a different speed target, and the car will automatically change lanes and pass slower cars.

I haven’t tried auto-parking yet, given that I doubt if the car can figure out where I want to park and the orientation of the car.

The self driving capability could augment human sensors, motors, and cognition and thus make driving safer and more efficient barring moral hazards (e.g., encouraging drunk or distracted driving).

So who is going to win control at OpenAI, the ones who can design and train the models or the ones who can bring in the money to pay for the compute and talent?
Both are needed for the success of the company.

In any case they will likely change the corporate structure so that the board better represents the investors.
(It is kind of ridiculous that Microsoft invests 10+B for a 49 percent stake but has no representative on the board.)

After a hectic working week I finally got a chance to follow up some recent tech news, in particular (as you could expect) about the surprise ousting of OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and the interim CEO.
On the way I also noticed yet another headline about X.

Looks like the tech industry is no less dramatic than the entertainment industry, but with far more consequential real-world impacts.

My experiments so far indicated that ChatGPT can be a great tool to help (but not replace) human writing. I can quickly write a rough draft for paper abstract or introduction, and ask ChatGPT to improve it. The outcome doesn’t have to be perfect as I (a human) am still in the loop, and the process has the potential to help with writer’s block.
(Obviously the practice applies to all writings, in particular creative writing like novels, but I am more concerned with technical writing due to personal needs.)

I have recommended this experiment to several collaborating students, and will report later about my findings.

For the sake of experiment, I wrote the above in one go, and asked ChatGPT to refine with conversations shown below.

Li-Yi:
Hi, I quickly wrote the following text for a blog post. Could you help me refine it? Thanks.

ChatGPT:
Here is a possible revision of your text:

“I have found that ChatGPT can be a useful tool for assisting with writing, although it cannot replace human writers. By using ChatGPT to generate a rough draft of a paper abstract or introduction, I can quickly get started and overcome writer’s block. While the final product may not be perfect, as a human I am still in control of the final version.

I have shared this experiment with several collaborating students and will report on our findings in the future. This approach can be applied to any type of writing, including technical writing and creative writing such as novels. For now, I am focused on using ChatGPT to improve my technical writing skills.”

Li-Yi:
Looks pretty good, but I saw one mistake in your version. Can you spot it?

ChatGPT:
I apologize if there are any mistakes in my revision. As a large language model, I do not have the ability to browse the web or access current information, so I can only offer suggestions based on general knowledge and common writing conventions. If you see a specific mistake that you would like me to address, please let me know and I will do my best to help.

Li-Yi:
The rough draft of a paper abstract or introduction is written by me (a human) instead of being generated by ChatGPT, which can help improve it.

ChatGPT:
In that case, you can revise the text as follows:

“I have found that ChatGPT can be a useful tool for assisting with writing, although it cannot replace human writers. By writing a rough draft of a paper abstract or introduction, I can use ChatGPT to improve it and quickly overcome writer’s block. While the final product may not be perfect, as a human I am still in control of the final version.

I have shared this experiment with several collaborating students and will report on our findings in the future. This approach can be applied to any type of writing, including technical writing and creative writing such as novels. For now, I am focused on using ChatGPT to improve my technical writing skills.”