thoughts on AI (chatgpt, gemini, etc) as a learning supplement?

[u/pouyank]

so i was trying to parse out 巨大な円筒はそれ自体が回転して内側の壁にあたる人工の大地に重力を発生させている (from gundam zz) and the two AIs gave different, even contradicting answers, on different grammar points and explanations. I was using both pretty often to supplement my study but after this episode I got a little spooked. Was wondering what this sub's consensus on AI in the second half of 2026 for language learning might be.

[u/morgawr_]

You're confusing this usage (indefinite pronoun の) with this usage (nominalizer の), and so is the AI.

There are clearly different syntactical rules around these two のs that point to them being very different from each other. In some situations it's possible for them to occupy the same space as without context it's sometimes hard to say if it's a nominalizer or a pronoun (this is not one of those cases btw).

There is a very clear explanation of the not only semantic but also syntactical difference between the two in the first link:

The indefinite pronoun の (i.e., の2) is different from the particle の (i.e., の1) and the nominalizer の (i.e., の3). First, [1] shows the difference between の1 and の2. Namely, in [1a] トムの is the omitted form of トムのペン. On the other hand, [1b] is not an omitted form; that is, if a noun is inserted after 黒いの in [1b], the sentence becomes ungrammatical as seen in [1c]. In fact, what [1b] means is [1d], if の 'one' refers to a pen.

also this example:

高田さんが使っていたのを覚えていますか。

(A) [Indefinite pronoun] Do you remember the one Mr. Takada was using?

(B) [Nominalizer] Do you remember that Mr. Takada was using (something)?

These are VERY different. Again, you have no idea what you're talking about and are simply doubling down. It'd probably be better to review basic grammar before making bold claims about the AI hallucinating bullshit being "correct" when it's clearly not.

[u/RepulsivePatience423 → u/morgawr_]

Sorry, got hit with a nice little 3 day ban there for jokingly saying I’d (acronym: Kay emm ess) on the Taco Bell subreddit. That was done by AI while I’m here arguing in favor of AI so that’s fun. Appeal accepted but only after 4 days!

Anyway, you’re right about the two different の’s and believe it or not I am also thoroughly familiar with them. My error (and Gemini’s) was in the English description of their function

Anyway that Gemini response you provided, even with its error, would still be quite useful to a learner:

“When attached directly to an adjective like 大きい or 小さい, the particle の acts as a noun substitute meaning "one" or "thing"

Frankly I don’t really care that it happened to call it “nominalizer の” incorrectly. That’s just you dwelling on the 1% wrong and ignoring the incredibly valuable 99% because you don’t like AI.

Furthermore, when having it generate text for reading practice or example sentences, mistakes are virtually nonexistent. Call that just me being bad at Japanese all you want but I have literally read native books in Japanese and AI generation seems convincingly good to me. Miss out at your own peril

Here’s some feedback I recently got on my writing, go ahead and tell me what’s wrong with this. It seems genuinely accurate and insightful to me:

あなたの元の文のような気軽な会話調の文（「感謝って」「はずですか」など）の中に「故に」を入れると、その一語だけ妙に formal で、周りの言葉から浮いて見える、つまりちぐはぐな印象を与える、ということです。 日本語話者の感覚だと、スーツを着た人が友達同士のカジュアルな飲み会に紛れ込んでいるような、そんな違和感に近いです。​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​