Data Carpentry for Biologists

Large Language Models

Notes

Introduction

  • Who’s heard about ChatGPT and AI Coding Assistants?
  • These are large language models
  • Since there is lots of code written by software developers on the internet they are pretty good at generating code

  • And since there are lots of lessons on how to learn to code on the internet they can also be good generating text that explains code

  • There are a variety of meaningful ethical concerns about using LLMs
  • Writing code with them when lacking the background to evaluate that code can also be dangerous
  • But they can be useful
  • My lab uses these tools to support our software engineering

Using LLMs for learning

  • LLMs can be useful for learning and you are allowed to use them for this in this course
  • Using them to directly answer the exercises won’t help you learn, because humans need practice to learn
  • That’s why we have exercises
  • As a result using LLMs to solve exercises has been compared to taking a forklift to the gym to lift weights
  • The goal of lifting weights is to get stronger, so having the forklift move the weights for you doesn’t help
  • Likewise, the goal of our exercises is to learn the foundations of computing in R, which you’ll need to work effectively with coding assistants (if you choose to)
  • To put that somewhat more enjoyably here’s quick short from Hero of Coding with Strangers
  • I’m here to teach and I’m assuming that you’re all here to learn, so I recommend listening to Hero and not using LLMs to directly answer the exercises
  • We won’t be policing LLM content in submissions

  • But the exercises do need to be answered using the approaches we learned in class and often LLMs will use a different approach

  • So what are useful ways to use them?
  • You can prompt them to explain things you don’t understand and they will parrot relevant advice from material on the web
  • This can be easier, especially for folks learning to code, than trying to search for a specific site that has the answer
  • You can also use them to help debug your code, which we’ll talk about more when we talk about debugging, but trying to fix bugs yourself is also important to learning

Using LLMs for work

  • If you’re interested in learning more about all of this - one of the optional things you can choose to learn at the end of the semester is more about working with coding assistants to accomplish work