alt Hacker NewsI think you might be suffering from a little bit of bias concerning your own comfort with written english with regard to the general population's comfort with written english.
I had a high school teacher (algebra II), my favorite coincidentally, who was actually functionally illiterate. He knew some words, and had a solid understanding of the alphabet, but ask him to parse a sentence or god forbid an essay, and he was completely lost.
He was a native born american, english as only language, and simply could not interact with the written language. If he could have written (in 2009) "give 20 question test for week 1 algebra II student with answer guide" he'd have gotten (based on the prompt I just submitted):
Week 1 — Algebra II: 20 Practice Questions
Simplify: 3(x + 4) − 2(2x − 5).
Solve for x: 5x − 7 = 2x + 11.
Solve: 2(x − 3) = 3(x + 1).
Solve and check: (x/4) + 5 = 11.
Factor: x^2 + 5x + 6.
Factor: 4x^2 − 9.
Factor completely: x^2 − 6x + 9.
Multiply and simplify: (2x − 3)(x + 4).
Expand: (x + 2)^2.
Solve quadratic by factoring: x^2 − x − 12 = 0.
Use the quadratic formula to solve: x^2 + 4x + 1 = 0.
Simplify: (3x^2y)(2xy^3).
Simplify: (x^5)/(x^2).
Solve for x: 2^(x+1) = 16.
Evaluate: f(x) = 2x^2 − 3x + 1; find f(2).
Write equation of a line in slope-intercept form with slope 3 and y-intercept −2.
Find slope of the line through points (1, 4) and (5, −2).
Solve the system by substitution: y = 2x + 1 and 3x − y = 4.
Solve the system by elimination: 2x + 3y = 7 and 4x − 3y = 5.
Simplify and write in simplest radical form: sqrt(50).
3x + 12 − 4x + 10 = −x + 22
5x − 2x = 11 + 7 → 3x = 18 → x = 6
2x − 6 = 3x + 3 → −6 − 3 = x → x = −9
x/4 = 6 → x = 24
(x + 2)(x + 3)
(2x − 3)(2x + 3)
(x − 3)^2
2x^2 + 8x − 3x − 12 = 2x^2 + 5x − 12
x^2 + 4x + 4
(x − 4)(x + 3) = 0 → x = 4 or x = −3
x = [−4 ± sqrt(16 − 4)]/2 = [−4 ± sqrt(12)]/2 = [−4 ± 2√3]/2 = −2 ± √3
6x^3y^4
x^3 (assuming x ≠ 0)
2^(x+1) = 16 = 2^4 → x + 1 = 4 → x = 3
f(2) = 2(4) − 3(2) + 1 = 8 − 6 + 1 = 3
y = 3x − 2
slope = (−2 − 4)/(5 − 1) = (−6)/4 = −3/2
Substitute y: 3x − (2x + 1) = 4 → 3x − 2x − 1 = 4 → x = 5 → y = 2(5)+1 = 11
Add equations: (2x+3y)+(4x−3y)=7+5 → 6x = 12 → x = 2. Then 2(2)+3y=7 → 4+3y=7 → 3y=3 → y=1
sqrt(50) = sqrt(25·2) = 5√2
Replies
People won’t get better if they don’t use it. These LLMs are a crutch that will not just not people from getting better, but any skills they do have will atrophy without use.
How can anyone even write a proper prompt, or understand if the answer is correct, without being literate? I’ve been noticing on YouTube where people are delivering scripts that are clearly AI written. It makes me question if they are able to read something, understand it, and put it in their own words. This seems like a fundamental skill any adult should have, especially if they are trying to make a living giving advice to others, as was the case with these videos.
I’d also think literacy should be a basic requirement for a teacher, regardless of the subject. If we don’t hold that standard for our teachers, how can we expect it of our students? Continuously lowering standards is not helping anyone in the long run. It hurts the individual and society as a whole.
What does this have to do with emails. The comment you replied to didn't say to purge all LLMs so I see basically no connection.
This comment is confusing to me on so many levels. What’s with the tangent(?) about a math test your algebra teacher could have generated? Did you bring up an illiterate teacher (extreme outlier) as evidence that the general population has low comfort with written English, or…? (I’m going to resist getting into the rest of the tangent, but it’s really impressively densely perplexing.)
(edit: I’m not going to resist)
> If he could have written (in 2009) "give 20 question test for week 1 algebra II student with answer guide"
Is the “could” here just about AI not existing back then, or does “could not interact with the written language” imply that he could not have written this prompt? Why would he need the output, given that most of it is math? (If we assume he can speech-to-text the prompt, why can’t he do the same for other writing?) If the level of writing of “Write equation of a line in slope-intercept form with slope 3 and y-intercept −2” is the challenge, is he able to read it? What if the output is wrong – who’s going to verify it? Are you presenting this as a good thing? How did/would he grade handwritten written-answer questions?