disagree- i used it for the last few years of coursework preparing for exams. If you give it context (i'm studying for an exam, do not give hints unless asked, your objective is to help my understanding) it is incredibly helpful. This isn't advice, it's a company going out of business.

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LollipopYakuza 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I have recently realised that people actually don't know how to prompt. They use AI "raw" and don't understand how the question can have a drastic impact on the result, let alone using skills or system prompts.

Learning new topics or skills is a very good example, I had the same experience as you with Claude when I learned a new language.

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nkrisc 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Which isn’t surprising at all if you turn off your adblocker and look at how these AI chat products are marketed to the general public. They’re presented as all-knowing oracles that can deliver exactly what you want with only the vaguest and briefest of prompts.

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philipwhiuk 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Maybe some argue it's ASI but for me AGI requires that the AI understand what you're trying to ask rather than require you to carefully engineer a prompt.

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wongarsu 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If you're starting a fresh session the AI has no context at all beyond your prompt (and the generic system prompt). It isn't psychic, it can't know if you want a straight answer, an elaborate explanation or an interactive teaching lesson. You have to actually say what you want

I'm not a huge fan of prompt engineering or elaborate skills that are longer than a couple sentences. But you have to give the AI context. The more context the better

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pixl97 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"

If a random person comes up and asks you a malformed question how do you answer? What's worse if what if the question is not actually malformed in some contexts and because you're a wizard that has massive amount of contextual information there are plenty of right answers for the 'wrong' question you just asked.

In schools classrooms tend to avoid unlimited exploration as it would take unlimited time. On your AI prompt the next thing you ask could be anything, anything at all. Just exactly how is the AI supposed to know if you're an idiot?

	▲	spwa4 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Continuing the great tradition of claiming that any machine, and especially any AI, unless it takes over literally everything, is worthless. Or in the words of Pablo Picasso: "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." (he was not joking by the way) Of course, if computers DO threaten to take over literally everything, then people are even more scared and react aggressively, as demonstrated in this 1939 article describing IBM's vocoders: "The Pedro Peril" (the first AI that actually talked back was nicknamed Pedro, and described as "the latest and most fearful gadget from IBM", the journalist's conclusion was to suggest Pedro be deported as he would spread propaganda and maybe even become a dictator) (unsigned Washington Post editorial, 1939) Here's Pedro in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rAyrmm7vv0

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fma 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's great but you're not an 8 year old.

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zffr 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It really depends on how you are using AI. If you simply use it to get the answers to homework you won't really learn. If you use it to figure out the topics you need to learn, and to identify/close gaps in your understanding then it is a very useful tool for learning.

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wat10000 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Depends heavily on the tutee. If it’s someone highly motivated looking for some guidance like you, I could see it working really well. If it’s a kid who would rather be scrolling through Instagram and needs an authority figure to keep them on track, it’s not going to work.

	▲	graemep 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If the kid would rather be scrolling instagram then solve the underlying problem. They will not have a good life if they will only do anything constructive when forced to by an authority figure.

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xhkkffbf 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I agree with you and not the OP.

I find it very easy to engage in a Socratic dialog with the AI. If I ask it, it will actually quiz me and carry on a tutoring session. And it doesn't mind if I ask dumb questions.

	▲	micromacrofoot 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		yes, similar experience... you can ask the same question in 10 different ways until you understand it and AI doesn't care I've walked away from colleagues trying to explain things similarly because if you're not getting it after a few attempts you're going to hit a wall of their ability to explain, their patience, time, etc