Genuine question: why is this only published as a PDF?
OpenAI have the resources to also publish this as HTML. They chose not to.
They're not alone in this - most of the academic and research world, plus the concept of a "whitepaper" seems predicated on the idea of publishing PDFs.
Is this some stupid thing where human beings are expected to attach more prestige to information published in this way?
PDFs are a terrible way of publishing information in 2023:
- they render poorly on mobile devices, where many (most?) people do their reading
- they're hard to copy and paste information out of
- you can't link to headings within them (like HTML fragment links)
- you can't easily run them through translation tools like the one built into Chrome
The benefits of PDF I can see are:
1. Easier to print and get the exact expected output
2. You can save one file offline
3. Easier to author
I'm not arguing to replace PDFs with HTML (though I wouldn't miss them personally) - I'm saying publish documents as both!
Provide an HTML version and a PDF alternative for people who want it.
Am I missing something here? Why does the academic and research world stubbornly stick to such a hostile way of publishing their results?
OpenAI have the resources to also publish this as HTML. They chose not to.
They're not alone in this - most of the academic and research world, plus the concept of a "whitepaper" seems predicated on the idea of publishing PDFs.
Is this some stupid thing where human beings are expected to attach more prestige to information published in this way?
PDFs are a terrible way of publishing information in 2023:
- they render poorly on mobile devices, where many (most?) people do their reading
- they're hard to copy and paste information out of
- you can't link to headings within them (like HTML fragment links)
- you can't easily run them through translation tools like the one built into Chrome
The benefits of PDF I can see are:
1. Easier to print and get the exact expected output
2. You can save one file offline
3. Easier to author
I'm not arguing to replace PDFs with HTML (though I wouldn't miss them personally) - I'm saying publish documents as both!
Provide an HTML version and a PDF alternative for people who want it.
Am I missing something here? Why does the academic and research world stubbornly stick to such a hostile way of publishing their results?