They’re by no means the end-all solution. And they usually aren’t my first choice.
But when I’m out of ideas prompting gemini with a couple sentences hyper-specifically describing a problem, has often given me something actionable. I’ve had almost no success with asking it for specific instructions without specific details about what I’m doing. That’s when it just makes shit up.
But a recent example. I was trying to re-install windows on a lenovo ARM laptop. Lenovos own docs were generic for all their laptops, and intended for x86. You could not use just any windows iso. While I was able to figure out how to create the recovery image media for the specific device at hand, there were no instructions on how to actually use it, and entering the BIOS didn’t have any relevant entries.
Writing half a dozen sentences describing this into Gemini, instantly informed me that there is a tiny pin-hole button on the laptop that boots into a special separate menu that isn’t in the bios. A lo, that was it.
Then again, if normal search still worked like it did a decade ago, and didn’t give me a shitload of irrelevant crap, I wouldn’t have needed an LLM to “think” it’s way to this factoid. I could have found it myself.
They’re by no means the end-all solution. And they usually aren’t my first choice.
But when I’m out of ideas prompting gemini with a couple sentences hyper-specifically describing a problem, has often given me something actionable. I’ve had almost no success with asking it for specific instructions without specific details about what I’m doing. That’s when it just makes shit up.
But a recent example. I was trying to re-install windows on a lenovo ARM laptop. Lenovos own docs were generic for all their laptops, and intended for x86. You could not use just any windows iso. While I was able to figure out how to create the recovery image media for the specific device at hand, there were no instructions on how to actually use it, and entering the BIOS didn’t have any relevant entries.
Writing half a dozen sentences describing this into Gemini, instantly informed me that there is a tiny pin-hole button on the laptop that boots into a special separate menu that isn’t in the bios. A lo, that was it.
Then again, if normal search still worked like it did a decade ago, and didn’t give me a shitload of irrelevant crap, I wouldn’t have needed an LLM to “think” it’s way to this factoid. I could have found it myself.
I do use LLMs if I forget to plan one of my tabletop sessions. I will fully admit they are great at that. Love 'em for making encounters.