I have also done a lot of writing with base models! (Indeed, we have an admin-only base-model completion feature built into the LW editor that I frequently use).
I think roughly the same guideline applies to base models as for research assistants:
A rough guideline is that if you are using AI for writing assistance, you should spend a minimum of 1 minute per 50 words (enough to read the content several times and perform significant edits), you should not include any information that you can’t verify, haven’t verified, or don’t understand, and you should not use the stereotypical writing style of an AI assistant.
Base models like to make stuff up even more so than assistant models, and they do so in more pernicious ways, so I would probably increase this threshold a bit. They do help me write, but I do really need to read everything 3-4 times to check they didn’t just make up something random about me, or imply something false.
I mean, one thing base models love to do is to generate biographical details about my life which are not accurate. Once when I was generating continuations to a thread where Alex Zhu was arguing with me about near-death experiences the model just claimed that I really knew that you don’t have any kind of “life flashing before your eyes” thing that happens when you are near death, because actually, I had been in 5+ near death experiences, and so I really would know. This would of course be a great argument to make if it was true, but it of course is not. Smaller variations of this kind of stuff happen to me all the time, and they are easy to miss.
(My comments start with a higher vote-total since my small-vote strength is 2. Then looks like one person voted on mine but not yours, but one vote is really just random noise, I would ignore it)
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I have also done a lot of writing with base models! (Indeed, we have an admin-only base-model completion feature built into the LW editor that I frequently use).
I think roughly the same guideline applies to base models as for research assistants:
Base models like to make stuff up even more so than assistant models, and they do so in more pernicious ways, so I would probably increase this threshold a bit. They do help me write, but I do really need to read everything 3-4 times to check they didn’t just make up something random about me, or imply something false.
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I mean, one thing base models love to do is to generate biographical details about my life which are not accurate. Once when I was generating continuations to a thread where Alex Zhu was arguing with me about near-death experiences the model just claimed that I really knew that you don’t have any kind of “life flashing before your eyes” thing that happens when you are near death, because actually, I had been in 5+ near death experiences, and so I really would know. This would of course be a great argument to make if it was true, but it of course is not. Smaller variations of this kind of stuff happen to me all the time, and they are easy to miss.
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Do you really have access to the GPT-4 base (foundation) model? Why? It’s not publicly available.
(My comments start with a higher vote-total since my small-vote strength is 2. Then looks like one person voted on mine but not yours, but one vote is really just random noise, I would ignore it)
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My best guess is (which I roughly agree with) is that your comments are too long, likely as a result of base-model use.