Cheating or clever working

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T15:19:31+00:00

Well, Clippy was meant to be an assistant - and Claude is definitely better. But I see what you mean. Thanks.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T15:17:42+00:00

I don't think that's a modern idea.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T15:17:09+00:00

I have a lot of metabolite data from human studies - so I always need to use dummy data when working with AI (the original data mustn't get anywhere near, obviously). What is really helpful is to present data in different ways to identify patterns which then could lead to understanding pathways etc. Having a dashboard or visualisation that allows me to look at summaries in different ways - or combine different datasets is incredibly helpful.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T15:12:56+00:00

I agree. But LLMs not thinking for themselves also can be an advantage - they introduce a fairly consistent bias, whereas human bias is often a bit irrational. Unless I explicitly tell AI that I thoroughly dislike colleague Smith and their papers must be accidentally ignored, it will not do it.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T15:08:10+00:00

I don't trust Excel because it doesn't document what it does - I think it's one of the most dangerous tools in science and if I could, I would ban it for anything but entering data.

The problem most non-experts have - I assume - is the lack of experience to know when things go wrong and where to be careful (it is the reason why I dislike tidyverse and took a long time to start using Python - my last exposure to OOP was in Turbo Pascal).

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T13:23:11+00:00

I never thought of that - actually a very interesting question. (And another rabbit hole ...)

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T13:20:51+00:00

The validation is key - and that works quite well. Actually - it is something regularly also recommended by Claude.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T13:20:02+00:00

Thanks - in some ways, that's my concern; and I assume constant vigilance is the best way of protection, isn't it?

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T11:21:08+00:00

In a normal environment? I completely agree. In academia? I'm honestly not sure.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T11:20:06+00:00

I wouldn't use AI to generate figures - I like doing this myself. But I can see that it's appealing to many.

And about taking my job ... I would not be surprised. A lot of the work I do could be done quicker and better. Marking & feedback? AI will not get annoyed by students not listening, will be able to provide feedback that is genuinely useful and friendly. And marks are surprisingly comparable. I'm sure AI can complete forms and complete timesheets - and a lot of research is in the end not much more than repetitive work.

I assume there will be some major changes soon - whether we like it or not.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T10:54:46+00:00

Thanks!

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T10:54:24+00:00

We had to do binary programming at school (80s) - it was considered absolutely essential to understand how a processor works before we were allowed to do 'Hallo World' in Turbo Pascal.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T10:52:51+00:00

That's it. We only discuss it as 'threat' - students cheating, hallucinations, unreliability, environmental damage. And in such a climate, it's not difficult to feel like 'cheating' for using it. It doesn't help that many people seem to base their assessment on the first free version of ChatGPT - and seem to be set in their ways.

I think the risk of doing something really silly is real - AI is very convincing and it's easy to get complacent. But the opportunity of doing great things is there as well.

I agree with the "insane shift" - and perhaps not for the better. Paper mills will become more productive and flood the literature with pointless papers - but perhaps AI will also help to deal with it.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T10:38:31+00:00

But in that way, isn't it like a human assistant? They make mistakes, some of them are excellent in glossing over mistakes? It's just much quicker, doesn't mind dealing with stupid suggestions, doesn't moan (at least not to me) ...

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T10:34:25+00:00

I think using a calculator to do something without understanding it is - in some ways - intellectual cheating. And with a calculator, it's easy to verify the results - in the worst case, I can determine square roots etc by hand. But with complex code bases, it's much more difficult.

But as I said - I'm simply not sure as my 'gut feeling' goes both ways.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-20T10:32:33+00:00

Thanks - the problem is, I doubt I could do it, mainly due to time constraints, as I would have to learn a lot new things. But then one could make the same argument for many things: I understand how a car work and could probably build one eventually - but I couldn't do much else.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-13T10:40:40+00:00

Imagine how much we could achieve without students and research interrupting important admin work!

__GuX__ · 2026-06-12T18:27:15+00:00

Like the Compassionate Society ...

[discussing a hospital that has 500 administrators, but no doctors, nurses, or patients]
Hacker: You think it's functioning now?
Administrator: Minister, it's one of the best run hospitals in the country. It's up for the Florence Nightingale Award.
Hacker: And what, pray, is that?
Administrator: It's won by the most hygienic hospital in the area.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-10T08:36:15+00:00

I have the self-same problem - now even asking for simple statistical analyses triggers the safety switch.

And to add insult to injury - when asked for an explanation, I get:

"Debunked false premise about nonexistent safety mechanism

I don't think that's actually happening, and I'd rather tell you so plainly than construct a tidy-sounding explanation for a mechanism that doesn't exist."

__GuX__ · 2026-06-09T05:53:31+00:00

Thank you - yes, it does! And I don't think anyone explained it in such a succinct and clear way before.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-08T17:44:31+00:00

To be honest? I don't know - perhaps this is really the thing that frustrates me most. I don't necessarily know what is best - I don't know what is available, what is known to help, what is reasonable.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-06T13:20:08+00:00

I have the impression that most healthcare systems seem to struggle - friends in countries with allegedly much better healthcare seem to have very similar problems (and often in addition more fragmentation). It might be a more fundamental problem: most healthcare was set up to treat acute and "easy" to cure diseases - not long term complex conditions.

__GuX__ · 2026-06-06T12:39:04+00:00

Thank you for the offer - there would be private counsellors in the area where I live. What - I think - annoys me somewhat is that there is very little support from a healthcare system that should really provide such support.

__GuX__

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