4 ms·

Maybe I am just way deeper in this space that any well-adjusted person should be, but the line of 'did you know LLMs are bad with niche factual information task

Maybe I am just way deeper in this space that any well-adjusted person should be, but the line of 'did you know LLMs are bad with niche factual information tasks in non-verifiable domains?' has become extremely boring to me. It feels very hard to find something actually new to say on the topic. I find it amazing people still feel the need to talk about it. But then again, I guess most people don't know the difference between a 4o and an R1.

bongripper 2y ago
The author may not be as smart, educated, hot and successful as you, but the fact that today, people around the world, including students and educators, use LLMs as knowledge machines and take their output at face value shows that such critical posts are still urgently needed.
- me_me_me 2y ago
  There are people who take Wikipedia or Russia Today as a source of unbiased truth Can't change lazy people
  - iamnotagenius 2y ago
    Wikipedia or even Russia today is not advertised to be a source of unbiased truth.
    - mdp2021 2y ago
      You may be interested to know that some extremist biased guts-be-more-dignified-than-cortex outlets around the world are named "The Truth" (I follow the press from many places). The failure of education in teaching Critical Thinking around the world is massive. It would be a good idea to focus on how to exploit LLMs to improve the situation. Also because, given the situation, the same "forces" that promote viscerality shamelessly naming it "The Truth" could have the opposite idea about chatbots and similar areas, exploiting them in their direction...
    - me_me_me 2y ago
      And LLMs are advertised as such?
      - iamnotagenius 2y ago
        Well there is general perception of being "advertised as such" from those who push LLMs and keep hyping them up as "PhD level performing" systems.
        me_me_me 2y ago
        [flagged]
        iamnotagenius 2y ago
        [flagged]
        me_me_me 2y ago
        [flagged]
        iamnotagenius 2y ago
        [flagged]
        me_me_me 2y ago
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        iamnotagenius 2y ago
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        me_me_me 2y ago
  - xtracto 2y ago
    Or worse... think of what a lot of extremists in the middle east take as truth! It's writings waaaaay older than the Wikipedia.
    - Ma8ee 2y ago
      You don’t have to go as far as the Middle East. A significant part of the US electorate takes the Bible as true.
- 6510 2y ago
  This is a good thing, accepting some stuff written some place as true and repeating it uncritically greatly contributes to human stupidity. To quite a friend of mine: But then I would have to question everything!?!
khazhoux 2y ago
What's bothersome is the undertone of "Behold! For I have demonstrated that the entire world is led astray!" This is every person in 2007 who looked at an iphone and thought "What's the big deal?" and not only failed to recognized what had changed, but confidently insisted others were wrong.
- ben_w 2y ago
  > This is every person in 2007 who looked at an iphone and thought "What's the big deal?" and not only failed to recognized what had changed, but confidently insisted others were wrong. That was me. Well, the first half — I wasn't confidently insisting others were wrong, because even back then I had a vague inkling even then that my preferences in general are very weird. But to AI: I think this is more like Wikipedia, where the frequent errors made it the butt of many jokes, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUApUyurxwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUApUyurxwY
- homebrewer 2y ago
  We've been through so many of these hype cycles before, the vast majority of which came to nothing, that it pays to be cautious. Are you sure it's the second iphone situation and not a repeat of the cryptocurrency bubble, which was at its peak just a few years ago? And is yet to find any applications besides financial speculation?
- oa335 2y ago
  > This is every person in 2007 who looked at an iphone and thought "What's the big deal?" and not only failed to recognized what had changed, but confidently insisted others were wrong. That’s an uncharitable take. People are pointing out its problems precisely because they believe AI is going to be transformative, but will have negative consequences for humanity as well. I think it’s more akin to someone in 2007 seeing an I phone and saying: this is a terrible device, people will look at while driving, it will be used to create vast intrusive surveillance state, etc.
britch 2y ago
I am not surprised by the result of this article, but LLMs are marketed to be used to get factual information on non-verifiable domains. Ads shows kids asking for answers to homework on things like "when did xyz battle take place" Your frustration with people talking about it might be better directed at the people marketing it
jmull 2y ago
> I find it amazing people still feel the need to talk about it. From what I see, not very many people understand the limitations of LLMs (e.g., scroll up and down the very page you're reading now). This stuff probably needs to be talked about a lot more.
ginvok 2y ago
If something is bad or wrong and not fixed yet, people have/need to criticize. What's so wrong about that?
eviks 2y ago
That's ok, its value isn't in exciting you, but warning the better adjusted ones

bongripper 2y ago

The author may not be as smart, educated, hot and successful as you, but the fact that today, people around the world, including students and educators, use LLMs as knowledge machines and take their output at face value shows that such critical posts are still urgently needed.

me_me_me 2y ago
There are people who take Wikipedia or Russia Today as a source of unbiased truth Can't change lazy people
- iamnotagenius 2y ago
  Wikipedia or even Russia today is not advertised to be a source of unbiased truth.
  - mdp2021 2y ago
    You may be interested to know that some extremist biased guts-be-more-dignified-than-cortex outlets around the world are named "The Truth" (I follow the press from many places). The failure of education in teaching Critical Thinking around the world is massive. It would be a good idea to focus on how to exploit LLMs to improve the situation. Also because, given the situation, the same "forces" that promote viscerality shamelessly naming it "The Truth" could have the opposite idea about chatbots and similar areas, exploiting them in their direction...
  - me_me_me 2y ago
    And LLMs are advertised as such?
    - iamnotagenius 2y ago
      Well there is general perception of being "advertised as such" from those who push LLMs and keep hyping them up as "PhD level performing" systems.
      - me_me_me 2y ago
        [flagged]
        iamnotagenius 2y ago
        [flagged]
        me_me_me 2y ago
        [flagged]
        iamnotagenius 2y ago
        [flagged]
        me_me_me 2y ago
        [flagged]
        iamnotagenius 2y ago
        [flagged]
        me_me_me 2y ago
- xtracto 2y ago
  Or worse... think of what a lot of extremists in the middle east take as truth! It's writings waaaaay older than the Wikipedia.
  - Ma8ee 2y ago
    You don’t have to go as far as the Middle East. A significant part of the US electorate takes the Bible as true.
6510 2y ago
This is a good thing, accepting some stuff written some place as true and repeating it uncritically greatly contributes to human stupidity. To quite a friend of mine: But then I would have to question everything!?!

khazhoux 2y ago

What's bothersome is the undertone of "Behold! For I have demonstrated that the entire world is led astray!" This is every person in 2007 who looked at an iphone and thought "What's the big deal?" and not only failed to recognized what had changed, but confidently insisted others were wrong.

ben_w 2y ago
> This is every person in 2007 who looked at an iphone and thought "What's the big deal?" and not only failed to recognized what had changed, but confidently insisted others were wrong. That was me. Well, the first half — I wasn't confidently insisting others were wrong, because even back then I had a vague inkling even then that my preferences in general are very weird. But to AI: I think this is more like Wikipedia, where the frequent errors made it the butt of many jokes, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUApUyurxwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUApUyurxwY
homebrewer 2y ago
We've been through so many of these hype cycles before, the vast majority of which came to nothing, that it pays to be cautious. Are you sure it's the second iphone situation and not a repeat of the cryptocurrency bubble, which was at its peak just a few years ago? And is yet to find any applications besides financial speculation?
oa335 2y ago
> This is every person in 2007 who looked at an iphone and thought "What's the big deal?" and not only failed to recognized what had changed, but confidently insisted others were wrong. That’s an uncharitable take. People are pointing out its problems precisely because they believe AI is going to be transformative, but will have negative consequences for humanity as well. I think it’s more akin to someone in 2007 seeing an I phone and saying: this is a terrible device, people will look at while driving, it will be used to create vast intrusive surveillance state, etc.

britch 2y ago

I am not surprised by the result of this article, but LLMs are marketed to be used to get factual information on non-verifiable domains. Ads shows kids asking for answers to homework on things like "when did xyz battle take place" Your frustration with people talking about it might be better directed at the people marketing it

jmull 2y ago

> I find it amazing people still feel the need to talk about it. From what I see, not very many people understand the limitations of LLMs (e.g., scroll up and down the very page you're reading now). This stuff probably needs to be talked about a lot more.

ginvok 2y ago

If something is bad or wrong and not fixed yet, people have/need to criticize. What's so wrong about that?

eviks 2y ago

That's ok, its value isn't in exciting you, but warning the better adjusted ones