Re:Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines
by ctbergstrom on Sunday February 09, 2025 @05:48PM
(#42994915)
This is an excellent point about scientific writing. We'll add something to that effect.
We have not taught this course from the web-based materials yet, but it distills much of the two-week unit that we covered in our "Calling Bullshit" course this past autumn. We find that our students are generally very interested to better understand the LLMs that they are using — and almost every one of them does, to vary degree. (Of course there may be some selection bias in that the 180 students who sign up to take a course on data reasoning may be more curious and more skeptical than the average.)
Have you noticed a difference in how your students approach LLMs after taking your course? A possible issue I see is that it is preaching to the choir; a student who is enclined to use LLMs for everything is less likely to engage with the material in the first place.
If you allow feedback, I was interested in lesson 10 on writing, as an educator who tries to teach my science/IT/maths students the importance of being able to communicate.
I would suggest to include a paragraph to explain why being able to write without LLMs is just as important in scientific disciplines, where precision and accuracy are more essential than creativity and personalisation.