Using AI to create your walking guide.

[BombayBill]

I just finished listening to @Dave podcast on Camino Guides. He referenced being wary of using Amazon available AI generated guides. That got me thinking of trying to create my own. The route I'm interested in is the Arles from Pau to the Aragones. I tried Google's Gemini which was useless. Then I tried the free version of CHAPGPT . Below is the link that contains my original CHAPGPT query and several refinements.

I understand there may be some pushback on this notion, but hey, it's the 21 century and we should be open to new ideas. So the link is below. If anyone else has ideas on how to create a better query I'm open to suggestions. I'm also open to ridicule, mockery, scoffing and general sniping.

ChatGPT - GR653 Camino Guide

Shared via ChatGPT

chatgpt.com

 

[Dave]

I've created a monster.

 

[BombayBill]

Sorry! The good news is that it's not a very good guide, nothing like your wonderful efforts. I think it may be useful for people who have read your stuff and can't be bothered to create a spreadsheet of towns and distances. It makes up a 2-3 page summary for me to annotate with additional information I've gleaned from your books and podcasts.

 

[Dave]

Sorry! The good news is that it's not a very good guide, nothing like your wonderful efforts.

Yeah, I'm not surprised. I'm straddling two worlds feeling very threatened by generative AI, the classroom and publishing. With students/education, there are some really productive applications, like using it to formulate study questions on very common subjects, or soliciting suggestions on phrasing. But asking it to simply create an essay is a fast way to a C- with an accompanying high risk of an academic dishonesty hearing.

In publishing... when the Atlantic published their big article on how one of the major AI programs was trained on a pirated data set, I discovered from their database that the first edition of my first Norte/Primitivo guidebook was in that set. So, on one hand, like many, many authors, my work was being used against my will, illegally, to create this product. And on the other, it was using a 15-year-old guidebook to train (admittedly, only one drop in the ocean of data in their sample), which is amusing!

It has been alarming, though, to see just how many garbage AI books--including Camino books--have already started flooding Amazon.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

There have been other AI related threads on the forum. With luck a post or two may prove to be useful.

Thread 'What AI ChatGPT knows about the Camino Frances'

Jan 17, 2023

I am very intrigued by the impressive text capability of the AI App ChatGPT. It is free of charge (for the time being) and can create text of astonishing quality in a number of languages. I asked the robot some questions about the CF:

Q: I am interested in walking the Camino de Santiago, what can you tell me about it?

A: The Camino de Santiago, also known as the Way of St. James, is a network of pilgrimage routes that lead to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, where the remains of the apostle St. James are believed to be buried. The most popular route is the...

• pepi
• Replies: 17
• Camino de Santiago Forum: 🇪🇸 Camino FRANCÉS (Most popular route)

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Thread 'Google's AI created itinerary'

Mar 29, 2023

Hello everyone-
I’m planning a trip for this October,2023.
I am just getting started. I decided to “ask Google’s AI (artificial intelligence bot named BARD)- to prepare me a 6 day route- it gave me this… I’m not sure how to plan a route.. so I’m open to Ideas, Suggestions and Changes- thx!

Day 1: Sarri to Puente la Reina

Day 2: Puente la Reina to Belorado

Day 3: Belorado to Arcas de Valdespina

Day 4: Arcas de Valdespina to Nájera

Day 5: Nájera to Logroño

Day 6: Logroño to Santiago de Compostela

• SFHoneybee
• Replies: 8
• Camino de Santiago Forum: 🇪🇸 Camino FRANCÉS (Most popular route)

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Thread 'Using AI to help you plan'

May 17, 2023

I’ll preface this with a disclaimer that I share a lot of common concerns about generative artificial intelligence, including its inability to attribute sources or discern correctness, and its potential to disrupt human workforce. Use it at your own discretion.

If you don’t know what generative AI is, in a nutshell, it takes prompts or questions from you and then estimates answers to your query based on language probability accrued from internet sources. It doesn’t have the ability to determine if what it is saying is correct, so often you need to double check it, but it can be a...

• Former member 108819
• Replies: 27
• Camino de Santiago Forum: Life on the Camino - Miscellaneous Topics

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[truenorthpilgrm]

The amount of water used in AI cooling data centers is fast becoming an environmental crisis, so I'll stick to regular planning, which honestly is way more fun...and efficient.

 

[BombayBill]

After a little more experimenting I think I’m going to use it to create a summary for me. I’m not a spreadsheet pilgrim but I like 2-3 pages of notes of things to look out for or potential issues. I like doing the reading and research but I’m lousy at creating the document framework in which I’m going to record the notes.

Mods - go ahead and delete whatever you think is counter to the goals of the forum.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I want to pass on what I heard an AI expert say. Essentially that was, at least in the short term, AI robots won't be doing people's jobs but the jobs will be given to people who know how to effectively use AI.

 

[C clearly]

Mods - go ahead and delete whatever you think is counter to the goals of the forum.

The goal of the forum is simply to provide a courteous place "where past pilgrims share and future pilgrims learn." We don't have a strategic plan for the Camino. So, the thread is fine!

 

[Anhalter]

Toyed with ChatGPT for a bit for a Camin Frances schedule. It struggled and got pretty useless the minute you left the typical schedules. Like something simple "I want to walk from SJPDPD to SdC in 26 days" brought a "regular" schedule and then something ridiculous like "for the last stage walk Sarria to SdC in a day". Even with refinement it did not come up with something I'd actually think practical.

Guess we still have some way to go with AI...

edit: it was actually even simpler, a question for a 30d CF schedule...

 

[CWBuff]

Please PLEASE no AI!!!
I don't understand which part of "Artificial intelligence " does not make someone pause and worry....

 

[David Tallan]

In my experience, having ChatGPT create a summary of what you already know is fine. That can be more efficient. You can immediately spot where it has made things up or falsified things to "sound right", or left out key things in its summary, and it is just a few tweaks to correct them.

On the other hand, using ChatGPT to research something that you don't already know (what is best route? Where should I stop? Which villages have albergues? etc.) is a terrible use of the tool. You have no idea what is real and what is "generated". So you have to do all the research yourself anyways to double check absolutely everything. Not efficient at all.

 

[msconduct10]

I tried using it to plan mine but it’s just too nuanced of a trip and path to do it well. Plus it’s fun to plan a Camino! What it did do well was create a training schedule for me that factored in my current fitness level, my weight lifting, my average anticipated mileage, hill work, and pack weight. It even factored in my two week cruise where long distance walking won’t be very practical. I was hesitant about AI, and I don’t use it much… generally for things like this where my brain is not good at taking a bunch of factors and cramming them into an organized outcome.

 

[Elle Bieling]

How does one know that a book on Amazon is AI generated? Any tips for discernment??

 

[backpack45]

I just finished listening to @Dave podcast on Camino Guides. He referenced being wary of using Amazon available AI generated guides. That got me thinking of trying to create my own. The route I'm interested in is the Arles from Pau to the Aragones. I tried Google's Gemini which was useless. Then I tried the free version of CHAPGPT . Below is the link that contains my original CHAPGPT query and several refinements.

I understand there may be some pushback on this notion, but hey, it's the 21 century and we should be open to new ideas. So the link is below. If anyone else has ideas on how to create a better query I'm open to suggestions. I'm also open to ridicule, mockery, scoffing and general sniping.

ChatGPT - GR653 Camino Guide

Shared via ChatGPT

chatgpt.com

Yes, it's the 21st century and I am open to new ideas, but I have found substantiative errors with A1 -- including what I read in my own profile on it. (I am a hiker and it said I had completed the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), Continental Divide, and Appalachian Trail--which is not the case and not something I have ever claimed. (I have completed the PCT). I hope things will improve over time, but meanwhile, I would not rely on it without doublechecking.

 

[msconduct10]

Yes, it's the 21st century and I am open to new ideas, but I have found substantiative errors with A1 -- including what I read in my own profile on it. (I am a hiker and it said I had completed the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), Continental Divide, and Appalachian Trail--which is not the case and not something I have ever claimed. (I have completed the PCT). I hope things will improve over time, but meanwhile, I would not rely on it without doublechecking.

Curious if you tried to correct it. I’ve seen people have full fledged arguments with it because it was understanding things wrong, and eventually they got it to see it was wrong. Fascinating stuff!

 

[WGroleau]

Please PLEASE no AI!!!
I don't understand which part of "Artificial intelligence " does not make someone pause and worry....

It has value in a limited set of circumstances, but in many cases, “AI” means artificial idiocy. And if the people training it aren’t honest, the I could stand for “indoctrination.”

 

[VNwalking]

I understand there may be some pushback on this notion, but hey, it's the 21 century and we should be open to new ideas

Unless they're stupid ones.
Why not use your own innate intelligence (which is free), rather than capitulating to the allure of the latest IT shiny object (which makes a few gazillionaires too much money)?
(I might note that while writing this short post, my correct spelling was changed twice to an incorrect word by a stupid machine algorithm. People make mistakes, sure, but there's real intelligence there, rather than output gathered by scraping the web without nuace or context.)