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I definitely like the LLM in the middle, it’s a nice way to circumvent the SEO machine and how Google has optimized writing in recent years. Removing all the cr

I definitely like the LLM in the middle, it’s a nice way to circumvent the SEO machine and how Google has optimized writing in recent years. Removing all the cruft from a recipe is a brilliant case for an LLM. And I suspect more of this is coming: LLMs to filter. I mean, it would be nice to just read the recipe from HTML, but SEO has turned everything into an arms race.

hirako2000 1y ago
Do you also like what it costs you to browse the web via an LLM potentially swallowing millions of tokens per minutes ?
- prophesi 1y ago
  This seems like a suitable job for a small language model. Bit biased since I just read this paper[0] [0] https://research.nvidia.com/labs/lpr/slm-agents/ https://research.nvidia.com/labs/lpr/slm-agents/
yellow_lead 1y ago
LLM adds cruft, LLM removes cruft, never a miscommunication
visarga 1y ago
I foreseen this a couple years ago. We already have web search tools in LLMs, and they are amazing when they chain multiple searches. But Spegel is a completely different take. I think the ad blocker of the future will be a local LLM, small and efficient. Want to sort your timeline chronologically? Or want a different UI? Want some things removed, and others promoted? Hide low quality comments in a thread? All are possible with LLM in the middle, in either agent or proxy mode. I bet this will be unpleasant for advertisers.
tines 1y ago
> Removing all the cruft from a recipe is a brilliant case for an LLM Is it though, when the LLM might mutate the recipe unpredictably? I can't believe people trust probabilistic software for cases that cannot tolerate error.
- kccqzy 1y ago
  I agree with you in general, but recipes are not a case where precision matters. I sometimes ask LLMs to give me a recipe and if it hallucinates something it will simply be taste bad. Not much different from a human-written recipe where the human has drastically different tastes than I do. Also you basically never apply the recipe blindly; you have intuition from years of cooking to know you need to adjust recipes to taste.
  - tines 1y ago
    Huh? You don't care if an LLM switches pounds to kilograms because... recipes might taste bad anyway????
    - kccqzy 1y ago
      Switching pounds with kilograms is off by a factor of two. Most people capable of cooking should have the intuition to know something is awfully wrong if you are off by a factor of two, especially since pounds and kilograms are fairly large units when it comes to cooking.
  - Uehreka 1y ago
    Hard disagree. I don’t have “years of cooking” experience to draw from necessarily. If I’m looking up a recipe it’s because I’m out of my comfort zone, and if the LLM version of the recipe says to add 1/2 cup of paprika I’m not gonna intuitively know that the right amount was actually 1 teaspoon. Well, at least until I eat the dish and realize it’s total garbage. Also like, forget amounts, cook times are super important and not always intuitive. If you screw them up you have to throw out all your work and order take out.
    - kccqzy 1y ago
      All I'm arguing is that you should have the intuition to know the difference between 1/2 cup of paprika and a teaspoon. Okay maybe if you just graduated from college and haven't cooked much you could make such a mistake but realistically outside the tech bubble of HN you won't find people confusing 1/2 cup with a teaspoon. It's just intuitively wrong. An entire bottle of paprika I recently bought has only 60 grams. And yes cook times are important but no, even for a human-written recipe you need the intuition to apply adjustments. A recipe might be written presuming a powerful gas burner but you have a cheap underpowered electric. Or the recipe asks for a convection oven but your oven doesn't have the feature. Or the recipe presumes a 1100W microwave but you have a 1600W one. You stand by the food while it cooks. You use a food thermometer if needed.

hirako2000 1y ago

Do you also like what it costs you to browse the web via an LLM potentially swallowing millions of tokens per minutes ?

prophesi 1y ago
This seems like a suitable job for a small language model. Bit biased since I just read this paper[0] [0] https://research.nvidia.com/labs/lpr/slm-agents/ https://research.nvidia.com/labs/lpr/slm-agents/

yellow_lead 1y ago

LLM adds cruft, LLM removes cruft, never a miscommunication

visarga 1y ago

I foreseen this a couple years ago. We already have web search tools in LLMs, and they are amazing when they chain multiple searches. But Spegel is a completely different take. I think the ad blocker of the future will be a local LLM, small and efficient. Want to sort your timeline chronologically? Or want a different UI? Want some things removed, and others promoted? Hide low quality comments in a thread? All are possible with LLM in the middle, in either agent or proxy mode. I bet this will be unpleasant for advertisers.

tines 1y ago

> Removing all the cruft from a recipe is a brilliant case for an LLM Is it though, when the LLM might mutate the recipe unpredictably? I can't believe people trust probabilistic software for cases that cannot tolerate error.

kccqzy 1y ago
I agree with you in general, but recipes are not a case where precision matters. I sometimes ask LLMs to give me a recipe and if it hallucinates something it will simply be taste bad. Not much different from a human-written recipe where the human has drastically different tastes than I do. Also you basically never apply the recipe blindly; you have intuition from years of cooking to know you need to adjust recipes to taste.
- tines 1y ago
  Huh? You don't care if an LLM switches pounds to kilograms because... recipes might taste bad anyway????
  - kccqzy 1y ago
    Switching pounds with kilograms is off by a factor of two. Most people capable of cooking should have the intuition to know something is awfully wrong if you are off by a factor of two, especially since pounds and kilograms are fairly large units when it comes to cooking.
- Uehreka 1y ago
  Hard disagree. I don’t have “years of cooking” experience to draw from necessarily. If I’m looking up a recipe it’s because I’m out of my comfort zone, and if the LLM version of the recipe says to add 1/2 cup of paprika I’m not gonna intuitively know that the right amount was actually 1 teaspoon. Well, at least until I eat the dish and realize it’s total garbage. Also like, forget amounts, cook times are super important and not always intuitive. If you screw them up you have to throw out all your work and order take out.
  - kccqzy 1y ago
    All I'm arguing is that you should have the intuition to know the difference between 1/2 cup of paprika and a teaspoon. Okay maybe if you just graduated from college and haven't cooked much you could make such a mistake but realistically outside the tech bubble of HN you won't find people confusing 1/2 cup with a teaspoon. It's just intuitively wrong. An entire bottle of paprika I recently bought has only 60 grams. And yes cook times are important but no, even for a human-written recipe you need the intuition to apply adjustments. A recipe might be written presuming a powerful gas burner but you have a cheap underpowered electric. Or the recipe asks for a convection oven but your oven doesn't have the feature. Or the recipe presumes a 1100W microwave but you have a 1600W one. You stand by the food while it cooks. You use a food thermometer if needed.