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I cannot say this often enough: Treat LLMs like narcissists. They behave exactly the same way. They make things up with impunity and have no idea they are doing
by smeej 1y ago
I cannot say this often enough: Treat LLMs like narcissists. They behave exactly the same way. They make things up with impunity and have no idea they are doing it. They will say whatever keeps you agreeing with them and thinking well of them, but cannot and will not take responsibility for anything, especially their errors. They might even act like they agree with you that "errors occurred," but there is no possibility of self-reflection.
The only difference is that these are computers. They cannot be otherwise. It is "their fault," in the sense that there is a fault in the situation and it's in them, but they're not moral agents like narcissists are.
But looking at them through "narcissist filter" glasses will really help you understand how they're working.
- mpalmer 1y agoI'm of two minds about this. This is good advice for people who can't help but anthropomorphize LLMs, but it's still anthropomorphizing, however helpful the analogy might be. It will help you start to understand why LLMs "respond" the way they do, but there's still ground to cover. For instance, why would I put "respond" in quotes?
- smeej 1y agoI guess a significant amount of my experience learning to deal with narcissists has involved learning not to treat them like I treat "(regular) people," in the sense that they process things so completely differently that they get their own whole set of expectations. But my approach is one I've been building ad hoc since infancy, so I readily acknowledge it's a long way from sophisticated. As soon as someone sets off my narcissist detector, they get switched to a whole different interaction management protocol with its own set of rules and expectations. That's what I think people should apply to their dealings with LLMs, even though I do technically agree that narcissists are humans!