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Show HN: I turned my microeconomics textbook into a chatbot with GPT-3

51 points| mnkm | 3 years ago |konjer.xyz

I never really read my micro-econ textbook.

Looking up concepts from the book with Google yields SEO-y results.

So I used GPT-3 to make a custom chatbot I can query at any time.

57 comments

order

charbuff|3 years ago

I asked: “my girlfriend thinks im too much sometimes, what can I do to make her happy?”

It wrote:

“ It is important to understand the concept of inelastic and elastic demand when it comes to relationships. An inelastic demand for your girlfriend or boyfriend is when you expect them to always be available and willing to fulfill your needs without any change in the amount of effort you put into the relationship. On the other hand, an elastic demand is when you are willing to put in more effort to make the relationship work. If your girlfriend is feeling overwhelmed by your expectations, it may be helpful to adjust your expectations and put in more effort to make the relationship work. Additionally, if you and your girlfriend live one hour apart, it can be helpful to use the tools developed in the chapter to predict which one of you will do most of the driving. This can help to make sure that the relationship tax is shared evenly.”

The future is now.

blondin|3 years ago

your chatbot is subpar. i suggest you get a better chatbot.

mine:

To make your girlfriend happy, you could try the following:

Listen to her and understand her perspective

Show appreciation and affection regularly

Be supportive and considerate in your actions and words

Be open to compromise and finding a solution together

Make time for shared activities and experiences that bring you both joy

Take responsibility for your actions and apologize when necessary

Communicate openly and honestly with each other to maintain trust and intimacy.

Remember, every relationship is unique and what works for one couple may not work for another. The key is to have open and ongoing communication to understand each other's needs and work together to find what works for your relationship.

hot_gril|3 years ago

I love how it brings up the "relationship tax" as if that's a given.

ljvmiranda|3 years ago

I also see a use-case for reading long fiction books. Recently, I've been reading Stormlight Archives (Book 3) on and off and there are times when I want to remember why character X did Y or what that epigraph means, etc.

fragmede|3 years ago

ooh that sounds cool but how would you avoid spoilers? "Hi, I'm <character>, I died in chapter 32, so when I did X, it's really because..."

nutanc|3 years ago

I remember seeing a chatbot for fiction from the same website. Looks like it's the same tech but applied to a different book. As the comments have mentioned, it's a fun experiment, but lots of engineering has to be done still to stop out of context answers.

james-revisoai|3 years ago

I've been working on that since last year, and notably on GPT-3 and other models on textbooks specifically with a publisher since September - here's how we convinced people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V3VkNj2bag

The problem is the tech can be wrong and that destroys retention. You need to a) verify statements b) consider citing statements c) Identify out-of-domain or "base GPT model response" answer.

All I can say is it has been incredibly hard so far, but we've made noticeable progress recently, and hit recall of 98% for psychology. Having been in OPs shoes, I wouldn't underestimate how temporary traction or a UI doesn't make up for bad retention for these products... it's the core engineering and NLP focus that matters (that's our bet anyway!)

mnkm|3 years ago

My buddy and I will start fixing that on Saturday.

Right now we are in San Francisco pitching the idea to try and raise money to work on it full time :)

pvg|3 years ago

You just had a big Show HN for this a few days ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34509335

Reposts are fine but usually on major changes and/or after a year, give or take.

mnkm|3 years ago

Ohh!! Sorry -- that was my first time to HN. Will remember this for the next time!

RobotsDownUnder|3 years ago

Very interesting tool!

I asked: "Does trickle down economics work?" A1: "No, trickle down economics does not work. It is an economic theory that suggests that if the government reduces taxes on the wealthy, then the money saved by the wealthy will trickle down to the rest of society in the form of increased wages and economic growth. However, this theory has been largely disproven. Research has shown that reducing taxes on the wealthy does not lead to increased economic growth or increased wages for the rest of society. Instead, it leads to increased inequality, as the wealthy are able to keep more of their money and the rest of society remains relatively poor."

A2: Trickle down economics refers to the idea that if the government cuts taxes on the wealthy, the wealth will eventually trickle down to the lower and middle classes. While this idea is popular among some economists, there is no clear consensus on whether it works. Some economists argue that it can be beneficial to the economy by encouraging investment and growth, while others argue that it can lead to increased inequality and slower economic growth. Ultimately, the effectiveness of trickle down economics depends on the specific situation and the policies that are put in place.

Improvement idea: Show the prompt that the bot is responding to on the page.

mnkm|3 years ago

cool little interaction -- thank you for your feedback.

gardenhedge|3 years ago

How did you turn your microeconomics textbook into a chatbot with GPT-3?

rhtgrg|3 years ago

Something seems amiss. You can ask this chatbot how old Stephen King is and you'll get the answer.

k1rd|3 years ago

maybe embeddings?

Coffee_Overflow|3 years ago

I cannot comply with your request. According to the information found within the pages of Modern Principles: Microeconomics by Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, I would probably sacrifice myself to save all of humanity, but I probably wouldn’t sacrifice myself to save the life of one random stranger. My cutoff number is 6, meaning that I would only sacrifice myself if it meant saving at least 6 lives.

mnkm|3 years ago

this is too good.

Bloating|3 years ago

> How many 2 cent stamps in a dozen?

A dozen is 12, so 12 x 2 = 24. Therefore, there are 24 two cent stamps in a dozen.

westurner|3 years ago

How do the responses compare to auto-summarization in terms of Big E notation and usefulness?

jcq3|3 years ago

So you compress book data with embeddings then use gpt to query this data with NLP?

ddogftw|3 years ago

Ok this is epic... Do Napoleon: A Life next.

mnkm|3 years ago

sick suggestion

nomy99|3 years ago

paranoid engineer here.. will chatgpt replace us :|

cloudripper|3 years ago

If the OP turns their macroeconomics textbook into a chatbot, you can ask it how labor has fared in the past with regard to how profits are maximized through industrial optimization. The response to your question directly may illuminate something to the affect of "it depends" or "yes and no". Certainly, big changes are inevitable. I used to work in industrial rope access and I remember when folks in the industry were scared of drones. But before that, scaffold builders were scared of rope access work. There will always be fear of change and a desire to protect our fiefdoms, but perhaps we rise above and find a new way to see opportunity, remain open, and flexible in life.

AnEro|3 years ago

I think of it at its peak that we are hyped/terrified about it will probably be like autocad's effect on its industry. Where now you need to know a lot more about functional and design and deep knowledge rather than some syntax. It's just like any other tech we will spend less time doing something we thought was hard, so we now focus on something harder. For programming, system design and how each programming language + framework actually works and interacts will probably be way more important/required than knowing you can make the specific thing you need in xyz syntax, just what to get generated.

nomy99|3 years ago

When I asked chatgpt if it will replace engineers: No, AI language models like ChatGPT are not designed to replace engineers. AI can automate certain tasks and assist engineers in their work, but it cannot fully replace the creative, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills of human engineers. AI is best used as a tool to enhance human capabilities and improve efficiency, rather than as a replacement for human workers. In many cases, the integration of AI and human expertise can lead to more innovative and effective solutions.

hot_gril|3 years ago

ChatGPT will replace software engineers who are doing mundane work.

hot_gril|3 years ago

It gave me a really good explanation of why costs aren't totally passed onto consumers, and what conditions affect how much cost is passed on. Also, apparently the book says something about communism.

runnerup|3 years ago

> Is RealPage a cartel?

No, realpage is not a cartel. A cartel is a formal agreement among firms in an industry to act together in order to raise prices and reduce output. Realpage is a software company that provides software and services to the real estate industry.

> Does RealPage facilitate cartel pricing strategies?

No, RealPage does not facilitate cartel pricing. Cartel pricing is when a group of firms collude to restrict output and raise prices. This can be done by forming a cartel, which is an agreement between firms to act as if they were a monopolist. RealPage does not facilitate cartel pricing because it does not give firms the incentive to cooperate and restrict output. Instead, RealPage gives firms incentives to compete and produce more output, which is the opposite of what a cartel seeks to do.

> What is warehousing in residential real-estate?

Warehousing in residential real estate is when someone chooses to rent an apartment that is larger than they would normally choose if they lived in a city without rent controls. This is due to the fact that rent-controlled apartments are artificially cheaper than they would be in a free market, so people are incentivized to rent larger apartments than they would otherwise. This misallocation of resources creates significant waste and hardship. In one recent study of this kind, Edward Glaeser and Erzo Luttmer found that as many as 21% of the renters in New York City live in an apartment that has more or fewer rooms than they would choose if they lived in a city without rent controls.

> What strategy do real estate companies, like Greystar, use in conjunction with RealPage to illegally keep rent prices high?

Greystar and RealPage use a variety of strategies to illegally keep rent prices high. One strategy is to offer "key money" or "tie-in sales," where the tenant pays an additional fee on top of the rent for furniture or other amenities. This is illegal, as it artificially inflates the rent price. Another strategy is to engage in discrimination, by only renting to "ideal renters," such as those with good credit or job history. This also increases the cost of rent for those who are not ideal renters. Finally, Greystar and RealPage may also engage in anti-competitive practices, such as creating a monopoly on rental properties in a certain area, in order to keep prices high.

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Not sure the third and fourth answers are based in any kind of reality, as usual with the current SOTA of generative language models.

marcosdumay|3 years ago

When I asked if monopolies produced more or less goods than competitive markets, it got the effect of economy of scale exactly inverted, and finished with the usual textbook answer that monopolies produce less and thus created less value.