Talk To Any Research Paper – ChatPDF

20

October

2023

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I cannot count how many research papers I’ve had to read over the past few years for my studies. Thoroughly reading lecture requirements, assignment research, or even exploratory literature reviews, have taken up a lot of my time. This is why I was pleasantly surprised to hear about a new tool a couple of weeks ago, one that promises to make reading journal articles easier and faster.

This tool, named ChatPDF, uses a large language model (LLM) to extract concepts and ideas from a submitted PDF (ChatPDF, n.d.). It then allows users to interact with the data through a chat, like ChatGPT, except the answers it provides are based on the knowledge presented in the PDF. Additionally, answers contain references to the source in the submitted document.

Of course, as this could be a potential timesaver, I wanted to try it out, and after using ChatPDF for the past week I have some thoughts. Overall, it does great in highlighting broad search queries and summarizing certain parts of text, but there are some caveats. The main problem is that it produces accurate statements 80% or 90% of the time, sometimes missing out on some crucial context. This does not sound too bad, but the fact that you don’t know when it got something wrong, and how badly it messes up, greatly hinders usability.

So, would I recommend ChatPDF? If you plan on thoroughly reading a paper and want to enhance your experience by e.g. having short recaps or an advanced quick search on the side, I would. As long as you don’t solely rely on the information the LLM presents it is a handy tool in providing enhancing information. In such a case, it does make reading papers easier and somewhat faster.

The subscription prices happen to be quite in line with my preferred use case, as the free version allows for two PDF documents a day and a total of 50 questions. The paid subscription, at $20 a month, allows both an unlimited number of PDFs and questions. (ChatPDF, n.d.)

Sources:
ChatPDF. (n.d.). ChatPDF – Chat with any PDF! Retrieved October 20, 2023, from https://www.chatpdf.com/

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Should you go for Google Allo?

25

September

2016

No ratings yet. What is Google Allo?

On September 21st 2016 Google Inc. launched its chat app Google Allo. Just like WhatsApp, Google Allo uses your phone number to connect with their app and send messages to contact persons in your phonebook. The app is available for both Android and iOS. Allo has a few features that make it unique: Google Assistant, incognito mode and Smart reply (automatic responses via learning over time). The downside to Smart reply that bothers people is the automatic storage of all your chat messages on the Google servers.

 

What makes Google Allo different from other chat apps?

The first feature that makes Google Allo different from other chat apps is Google Assistant. This virtual assistant can answer questions privately or within chats with your friends, can give suggested follow up questions as shortcuts to manually typing, can pull information from the internet and it has a machine learning component. This self-learning assistant is a precursor of an advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) virtual assistant. Secondly, there is an incognito mode in which your chats are end-to-end encrypted and can only be seen by the participants. In this mode Google can’t read any of your messages which means you can’t use the Smart reply or Assistant features. The last unique feature is the Smart reply which makes replying to conversations easier and faster. It recalls typical responses of the user and gives the applicable ones as reply options to a photo or a message. Smart reply adjusts itself to the user’s writing style and improves through time.

 

What are the privacy implications of Google Allo?

If you decide not to use incognito mode then your chat logs are stored on Google’s servers indefinitely until you actively decide to delete them. These chats aren’t encrypted and can be requested by US government authorities through a search warrant. That is why Edward Snowden, ex-CIA employee and whistleblower, advises against using Allo. Another criticism is that the app may tempt people to prefer the AI assistant over the privacy of an end-to-end encrypted chat. This design choice seems to be a step backward for people who are concerned about the continuously challenged legal status of end-to-end encryption.

 

Should you go for Google Allo?

At this point in time my answer is: no. The Google Assistant feature is promising and works well but isn’t groundbreaking enough for me to switch from WhatsApp to Google Allo. If you want to use end-to-end encryption for protecting your privacy, you have to enable the incognito mode. In this mode the most important additional features, Google Assistant and Smart reply, don’t work.

 

References:

Everything You Need to Know About Google Allo’s Privacy Backlash

http://www.ibtimes.com/google-allo-messaging-app-features-smart-reply-incognito-mode-google-assistant-2419942

https://support.google.com/allo/answer/6383724?hl=en

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/09/21/google-allo-can-the-new-chat-app-outsmart-whatsapp-and-imessage/

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