I’ve been using chatGPT to improve things I’ve been doing as a hobby, like compilers research, low-level emulators, or language design (fields where I don’t have any professional experience), and my phase of learning has increased a ton since then

The book says they’re probably very good problem solvers. They’ll find a way in.

(Signs, 2002)

I could see how this will help us as a society, but it depends strictly on the human input using this tool. You need to know X to at least start learning about it. The existence and depth of potential good topics provided by a model like GPT depends rigorously on the inputs provided So far, chatGPT cannot replace a book (lol), but it can help us to practice and to change the dynamics of the learning process

In the past, at least for me, this process has been:

reading -> practice -> blocker -> [discussion + research](X hours taken) -> repeat

Now, learning changed. No task is daunting right now, not even building a compiler from scratch

Since GPT, this process has been:

discovery -> introduction -> [interactive practice + reading] -> blocker -> [interactive resolution + reading] -> repeat

The hard part, so far, has been the inputs I provide to the model.

I have to decide what is the kick start to the learning process of making a compiler. But again, that’s my fault for not knowing the curriculum, and maybe the books will do this part of the work in the future.

This can be quickly reacted with: “but the information is already there; you can search on the internet,” and that’s wrong. Whoever claims it does not understand how the Internet works starting from 2001 and the rise of the corpos (Adam Curtis, E6, Can’t get you out of my head)

So far, these are the domains I’m improving using this new technology:

  • A teacher for my Italian skills
  • A compiler expert that gives me learning topics and summaries from books in the field (like the Dragon Book)
  • A manager for an emulator project I’ve been building