Basically this was the first time I've used an AI to count instances in a document in this way - we're encouraged to use Copilot at work, so that's what I did. It's sold very much as something to use for analysing documents, spreadsheets - integrated with Office etc.
Comments
Hubristically, I thought I knew better than to blindly trust what it spits out. So I picked some regions, compared what Copilot generated vs the actual document for these.
It did not occur to me that this could be a false impression of completeness - never mind that there would be serious errors elsewhere.
Thankfully, I doubt very many people saw it but that's not really the point. If it had been for a story, I would've been a lot more thorough (and with others checking), but that's not the point either.
1. Don't trust AI to run even the most basic statistical things (yes, yes I knew that already, but then you get told you must use this stuff, and then...).
2. Don't rush to post things to social media, it creates dumb and embarrassing situations like this one.
Yours,
Today's AI schmuck.
You say you're "encouraged to use Copilot at work"—
Do you think that the policy should be questioned?
Is it allowed to be questioned?
Is this damaging work product?
Are others having the same experiences?
That's the test.
Even then it's a climate-apocalypse plagiarism machine that should be opposed at every turn.
The only mitigating factor is that you hadn't committed the particular idiocy os thinking an LLM could do something useful before.
NOT because it is good, helpful or useful
Honestly worrying that journalists are blindly using AI, if you need to double check your work every time, IT IS A WASTE OF TIME!
For instance, yes this example was poor (both the AI and my use of it), but equally there's stuff I've done with AI that simply would not have been possible for me to do before (or at least, extremely difficult)
Much of it has been extremely beneficial for my own journalism.
I don't think it's very black and white
Only where verification is much easier than creation should using the climate-apocalypse plagiarism machines ever be contemplated
One can be pretty sure when it counts Sector 33 times that is it is not Sector near Axminster in Somerset - nor Newport in any of the 3 mentions is near Borgue in Scotland!
Never use GenAI for counting, numbers, logic, or accuracy. It’s not what they are designed to do. (Ignore the touts)
It’s okay for marketing-speak or other drivelous text, since LLMs are in essence regurgatory.
It’s only useful for things that don’t matter or are trivial to check. Not exactly the new industrial revolution.