If I’m brutally honest, I don’t find these use cases very compelling.
Separate fields for addresses could be easily solved without an LLM. The only reason there isn’t already a common solution is that it just isn’t that much of a problem.
Data ingestion from email will never be as efficient and accurate as simply having a customer fill out a form directly.
These things might make someone mildly more efficient at their job, but given the resources required for LLMs is it really worth it?
I suspect that this is “grumpy old man” type thinking, but my concern is the loss of fundamental skills.
As an example, like many other people I’ve spent the last few decades developing written communication skills, emailing clients regarding complex topics. Communication requires not only an understanding of the subject, but an understanding of the recipient’s circumstances, and the likelihood of the thoughts and actions that may arise as a result.
Over the last year or so I’ve noticed my assistants using LLMs to draft emails with deleterious results. This use in many cases reduces my thinking feeling experienced and trained assistant to an automaton regurgitating words from publicly available references. The usual response to this concern is that my assistants are using the tool incorrectly, which is certainly the case, but my argument is that the use of the tool precludes the expenditure of the requisite time and effort to really learn.
Perhaps this is a kind of circular argument, like why do kids need to learn handwriting when nothing needs to be handwritten.
It does seem as though we’re on a trajectory towards stupider professional services though, where my bot emails your bot who replies and after n iterations maybe they’ve figured it out.
I think there’s specific industrial problems for which AI is indeed transformative.
Just one example that I’m aware of is the AI-accelerated nazca lines survey that revealed many more geoglyphs that we were not previously aware of.
However, this type of use case just isn’t relevant to most people who’s reliance on LLMs is “write an email to a client saying xyz” or “summarise this email that someone sent to me”.
I just sync a folder with syncthing and use native markdown editors.
On a desktop I like zettlr. On android I like zettel notes. Both have zettelkasten features which is pretty much just a way to link to other files.
Yeah, still not convinced.
I work in a field which is not dissimilar. Teaching customers to email you their requirements so your LLM can have a go at filling out the form just seems ludicrous to me.
Additionally, the models you’re using require stupid amounts of power to produce so that you can run them on low power machines.
Anyhow, neither of us is going to change our minds without actual data which neither of us have. Who knows, a decade from now I might be forwarding client emails to an LLM so it can fill out a form for me, at which time I’ll know I was wrong.