Jon SterlingOct 1

Please teach your students not to do this.

I understand there is a continuum between spellcheck/grammar check and LLMs, and there could be ways to use LLMs to improve wording or grammar, etc.

But please teach your students not to use LLMs to “draft content”. I don't care if they disclose it (tbh, I prefer they don't!). I don't care if they "take responsibility for the content".

The thing about writing is that it has a social function. The social function is *not* to cause text to exist. The social function is to communicate from your mind to my mind. Text is the means, not the end. If you must use an LLM, skip it and just send me the prompt.

(No, I'm not going to link to the paper. The point is not to dunk on people who end up on the wrong side of a social question. The point is to do better.)

Show threadPozorvlakOct 1
@jonmsterling I think the social function of a text depends on the text. For students, yes, the point is to get the student to generate the text themselves so that they (a) think about the ideas in it, (b) accurately communicate their state of knowledge to the instructor. For teaching at an elite university, you want to communicate "here is the material, and here is how I, an expert in the field, think about it." But for some texts the point is to communicate "we did X, and Y happened", and a deep insight into the mind of the author is not required. People who are good at doing X are not always good at writing about it.
Show threadJon SterlingOct 1

@pozorvlak
> People who are good at doing X are not always good at writing about it.

Yes, but getting good at it is one of the things we are trying to teach them.

I also believe that in both the scientific setting and the pedagogical setting, the social function of text is similar. In the pedagogical case, it's not so much that I need a deep connection to their thoughts on binary trees, but RATHER that the thing we are teaching them by having them write about binary trees if how to communicate in settings where that deep connection is important.

I am not sure about the "we did X, and Y happened" thing. I don't think there are many examples of where such a text would have any import whatsoever if it did not come from a human being with whom I have either a scientific, professional, or intellectual relationship.

Show threadJon SterlingOct 1
@pozorvlak We should not be teaching students to write text that doesn't need to be written. If it is just as socially valuable when written by an LLM as when written by a person, then it is by definition not valuable at all. We should teach people to *refrain* from writing things that do not need to be written.
Show threadPomegranate County Irregulars
@jonmsterling @pozorvlak Who determines “need?”
Oct 3 at 12:46amWeb
Show threadPozorvlakOct 3
@pomCountyIrregs only rarely the people who have to write the thing, and often not the people who have to read the thing either. @jonmsterling
Show threadCakeMonsterOct 7
@pozorvlak are you complaining about that reality or supporting it?
Show threadPozorvlakOct 7
@cakemonster the former.