LLMs Archives – Joni Salminen

Five (now seven) problems in synthetic users created using LLMs

Published by Joni on March 17, 2026

[Edit: added a seventh problem based on Elaine Zanutto’s comment on LinkedIn.][Edit: added a sixth problem based on Chris Chapman’s comment on LinkedIn.] Five problems in synthetic users created using LLMs: Takeaway: Synthetic users are inauthentic users. They could be useful for evaluating systems in an exploratory and limited way when the target user persona is extremely well-defined (e.g., based…

Three thoughts on students using LLMs to do their thinking

Published by Joni on June 28, 2025

Three thoughts on students using LLMs to do their thinking. Of course, I’m not in favor of it. But it’s been hard to articulate why in a way that students would understand it. Think I found a good analogy for this in chess. If you watch chess videos, great moves often appear self evident after the player has made them,…

What are the real benefits of human educators vs. ChatGPT?

Published by Joni on May 14, 2024

Hi! Saw some interesting claims in this presentation about teacher strengths relative to AI: https://sway.cloud.microsoft/CqKZjoSsoTvWoTMB?ref=Link I’m assessing each one by one below. (Btw, if you’re interested in GenAI for bachelor’s level education, take a look at my tips and experiences.) “Teacher Strengths in Relation to language model ChatGPT:” “Artificial intelligence is an efficient tool that can support teachers in many…

Tag: LLMs

Five (now seven) problems in synthetic users created using LLMs

Three thoughts on students using LLMs to do their thinking

What are the real benefits of human educators vs. ChatGPT?