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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   3217 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 7, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Since people keep talking about/recommending them, how do you use an LLM? I mean, most everything I search online is paywalled, and the free "AI tools" I've tried weren't very impressive (and ended up either shut down or paywalled)?

Could somebody give some ELI5-level guidance and/or recommendations?

@self_made_human you’re the one I’d ask, here.

I have been summoned.

Well, Ranger has done a pretty good job, but if you particularly want GPT-4 (or a fork) for free, then you can use Bing Copilot, either through the Bing app or your browser.

You need to sign up with your email (I don't recall if it needs to be a Microsoft account or using Outlook), and there you go. You flip a toggle to make it use GPT-4, and you're set.

Pretty KISS, and it's the best free LLM out there, being on par with GPT-4 as served through paid OAI ChatGPT.

Everything else that good or debatably better requires money, or a willingness to find shady discord bots or sign up for research previews and so on.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

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Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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