this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024
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It can't write much of substance. The only people using it in science for anything more than fluff are people who don't speak English well or who have no business writing papers. I sympathize with the former, but I don't understand why those folks wouldn't just either publish in a language they speak or get an English-speaking coauthor to help write in English. I wouldn't ever use it to write an article. Even editing, it tends to butcher scientific nuance.
It is good at writing fluff though, which is helpful for things like letters of recommendation for undergraduates.
Major journals are in English, and "just getting an English speaking coauthor" might not be as easy as you make it sound – especially considering that using an LLM to fix grammar is definitely going to be easier and faster
I'm in science. It isn't difficult to get an English speaking coauthor. Going to an LLM is easier and faster, sure, but if someone can't understand the output then they have no idea if their text is being translated correctly.
Oh yeah that's absolutely true, I was thinking more of people who aren't fluent in English and would like to make their text a bit more natural or fluent, which is what I've done
Ah, I would consider that fluff, which is okay in my book. I don't use it for writing, personally, but what I tell my students is that if it'd be fine for a friend to do the thing and not get coauthorship, it's fine to use AI for that (provided you acknowledge it, as you would a friend who provides some helpful comments on a draft). Proofing and suggesting minor stylistic things fall under that umbrella IMO.