4 ms·

I've mentioned this to colleagues at work before. LLMs give a very strong appearance of intelligence, because humans are super receptive to information provide

I've mentioned this to colleagues at work before. LLMs give a very strong appearance of intelligence, because humans are super receptive to information provided via our native language. We often have to deal with imperfect speakers and writers, and we must infer context and missing information on our own. We do this so well that we don't know we're doing it. LLMs have perfect grammar and we subtly feel that they are extremely smart because subconsciously we recognize that we don't have to think about anything that's said, it is all syntactically perfect. So, LLMs sort of trick us into masking their true limitations and believing that they are truly thinking; there are even models that call themselves thinking models, but they don't think, they just predict what the user is going to complain about and say that to themselves as an additional, dynamic prompt on top of the one you actually enter. LLMs are very good at fooling us into the idea that they know anything at all; they don't. And humans are very bad at being discriminate about the source of the information presented to them if it is presented in a friendly way. The combination of those things is what has resulted in the insanely huge AI hype cycle that we are currently living in the middle of. Nearly everyone is overreacting to what LLMs actually are, and the few of us that believe that we sort of see what's actually happening are ignored for being naysayers, buzz-kills, and luddites. Shunned for not drinking the Kool-Aid.

hnfong 1y ago
You're ignored not because you're right or wrong, but because your unsolicited advice is not useful. For example, I can spin up any LLM and get it to translate some English text into Japanese with maybe 99% accuracy. I don't need to believe whether it "really knows" English or Japanese, I only need to believe the output is accurate. Similarly I can ask a LLM to code up a function that does a specific thing, and it will do it with high accuracy. Maybe there'll be some bugs, but I can review the code and fix them, which in some cases boosts my productivity. I don't need to believe whether it "really knows" C++ or Rust, I only need it to write something good enough. I mean, just by these two examples, LLMs are really great tools, and I'm personally hyped for these use cases alone. Am I fooled by the LLM? I don't think so, I don't have any fantasy about it being extremely intelligent or always being right. I doubt most reasonable people these days would either. So basically you're going about assuming people are fooled by LLMs (which they might not be), and wondering why you're unpopular when you're basically telling everyone they're gullible and foolish.
- naikrovek 1y ago
  > So basically you're going about assuming people are fooled by LLMs no assumption. people believe that these things think. I encourage you to hang out in non-technical places and listen to people talking about what LLMs do. "Mine has a personality!" People who do not understand the limitations of LLMs believe these things are alive.
gowld 1y ago
This effect has been visible on chat forums like Reddit, where incredibly stupid people somehow manage to write well enough to seem intelligent, until you read their full exposition of their disordered thinking.

hnfong 1y ago

You're ignored not because you're right or wrong, but because your unsolicited advice is not useful. For example, I can spin up any LLM and get it to translate some English text into Japanese with maybe 99% accuracy. I don't need to believe whether it "really knows" English or Japanese, I only need to believe the output is accurate. Similarly I can ask a LLM to code up a function that does a specific thing, and it will do it with high accuracy. Maybe there'll be some bugs, but I can review the code and fix them, which in some cases boosts my productivity. I don't need to believe whether it "really knows" C++ or Rust, I only need it to write something good enough. I mean, just by these two examples, LLMs are really great tools, and I'm personally hyped for these use cases alone. Am I fooled by the LLM? I don't think so, I don't have any fantasy about it being extremely intelligent or always being right. I doubt most reasonable people these days would either. So basically you're going about assuming people are fooled by LLMs (which they might not be), and wondering why you're unpopular when you're basically telling everyone they're gullible and foolish.

naikrovek 1y ago
> So basically you're going about assuming people are fooled by LLMs no assumption. people believe that these things think. I encourage you to hang out in non-technical places and listen to people talking about what LLMs do. "Mine has a personality!" People who do not understand the limitations of LLMs believe these things are alive.

gowld 1y ago

This effect has been visible on chat forums like Reddit, where incredibly stupid people somehow manage to write well enough to seem intelligent, until you read their full exposition of their disordered thinking.