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The KV cache doesn't affect it because it's just an optimization. LLMs are stateless and don't take any other input than a fixed block of text. They don't have
by chpatrick 10mo ago
The KV cache doesn't affect it because it's just an optimization. LLMs are stateless and don't take any other input than a fixed block of text. They don't have memory, which is the requirement for a Markov chain.
- sigbottle 10mo agoHave you ever actually worked with a basic markov problem? The markov property states that your state is a transition of probabilities entirely from the previous state. These states, inhabit a state space. The way you encode "memory" if you need it, e.g. say you need to remember if it rained the last 3 days, is by expanding said state space. In that case, you'd go from 1 state to 3 states, 2^3 states if you needed the precise binary information for each day. Being "clever", maybe you assume only the # of days it rained, in the past 3 days mattered, you can get a 'linear' amount of memory. Sure, a LLM is a "markov chain" of state space size (# tokens)^(context length), at minimum. That's not a helpful abstraction and defeats the original purpose of the markov observation. The entire point of the markov observation is that you can represent a seemingly huge predictive model with just a couple of variables in a discrete state space, and ideally you're the clever programmer/researcher and can significantly collapse said space by being, well, clever. Are you deliberately missing the point or what?
- chpatrick 10mo ago> Sure, a LLM is a "markov chain" of state space size (# tokens)^(context length), at minimum. Okay, so we're agreed.