Short presentation on uses of ChatGPT

1. Using ChatGPT for Building an R
Shiny App
Daniel Erickson

2. Potential Uses for ChatGPT
● Learn/recover syntax
● Creating functions/scripts
● Debugging
● Explaining documentation/APIs
● Brainstorming presentation points

3. Caveats
● ChatGPT makes stuff up
● Generated code is often slightly wrong
● Don’t shirk understanding foundations

4. Creating R Shiny widgets
● “Give a shiny ui.R widget that is a
selectInput for the options 'Range',
'Month'. With range, a slider range
is given. With month, a selection of
the twelve months is given.”
● What still needs adjustment?

5. Another example

6. Debug
● Process in picture: ask about the issue
with a code snippet
● Alternate process: provide error message
and code

7. Explain

8. Notes About Generated Code
● Code is typically commented
● Hallucinated API calls may lurk
● Best for basic, boring code
● Construct iteratively for more complex code
● Training set is pre-2022; newer libraries may not be accessible

9. How to Effectively Use as a Learning Tool
● Seek to properly understand generated code
○ Syntax
○ Relationships between objects
○ Write!
● Ask questions about the documentation
● After building: review concepts learned and used

10. About other GPT/LLM
● BingGPT
○ Free
○ Cites sources
○ Also does code
● Phind.com
○ Phree
○ Specifically for developers
○ Best for questions about rather than code creation

11. Thank you!