zlacker

>>tablet+(OP)
One thing that I find truly amazing is just the simple fact that you can now be fuzzy with the input you give a computer, and get something meaningful in return. Like, as someone who grew up learning to code in the 90s it always seemed like science fiction that we'd get to a point where you could give a computer some vague human level instructions and get it more or less do what you want.

>>gdubs+Z
It's mind blowing. At least 1-2x/week I find myself shocked that this is the reality we live in

>>csalle+z1
Today I had a dentist appointment and the dentist suggested I switch toothpaste lines to see if something else works for my sensitivity better.

I am predisposed to canker sores and if I use a toothpaste with SLS in it I'll get them. But a lot of the SLS free toothpastes are new age hippy stuff and is also fluoride free.

I went to chatgpt and asked it to suggest a toothpaste that was both SLS free and had fluoride. Pretty simple ask right?

It came back with two suggestions. It's top suggestion had SLS, it's backup suggestion lacked fluoride.

Yes, it is mind blowing the world we live in. Executives want to turn our code bases over to these tools

>>malfis+Y5
This is where o3 shines for me. Since it does iterations of thinking/searching/analyzing and is instructed to provide citations, it really limits the hallucination effect.

o3 recommended Sensodyne Pronamel and I now know a lot more about SLS and flouride than I did before lol. From its findings:

"Unlike other toothpastes, Pronamel does not contain sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), which is a common foaming agent. Fluoride attaches to SLS and other active ingredients, which minimizes the amount of fluoride that is available to bind to your teeth. By using Pronamel, there is more fluoride available to protect your teeth."

>>cowlby+1L
That is impressive, but it also looks likely to be misinformation. SLS isn't a chelator (as the quote appears to suggest). The concern is apparently that it might compete with NaF for sites to interact with the enamel. However, there is minimal research on the topic and what does exist (at least what I was quickly able to find via pubmed) appears preliminary at best. It also implicates all surfactants, not just SLS.

This diversion highlights one of the primary dangers of LLMs which is that it takes a lot longer to investigate potential bullshit than it does to spew it (particularly if the entity spewing it is a computer).

That said, I did learn something. Apparently it might be a good idea to prerinse with a calcium lactate solution prior to a NaF solution, and to verify that the NaF mouthwash is free of surfactants. But again, both of those points are preliminary research grade at best.

If you take anything away from this, I hope it's that you shouldn't trust any LLM output on technical topics that you haven't taken the time to manually verify in full.