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Isn’t “bad output” already worst case? Pre-LLMs correct output was table stakes. You expect your calculator to always give correct answers, your bank to always
by MeetingsBrowser 7mo ago
Isn’t “bad output” already worst case? Pre-LLMs correct output was table stakes.
You expect your calculator to always give correct answers, your bank to always transfer your money correctly, and so on.
- swiftcoder 7mo ago> Isn’t “bad output” already worst case? Worst case in a modern agentic scenario is more like "drained your bank account to buy bitcoin and then deleted your harddrive along with the private key" > Pre-LLMs correct output was table stakes We're only just getting to the point where we have languages and tooling that can reliably prevent segfaults. Correctness isn't even on the table, outside of a few (mostly academic) contexts
- MeetingsBrowser 7mo ago> drained your bank account to buy bitcoin and then deleted your harddrive These are what I meant by correct output. The software does what you expect it to. > We're only just getting to the point where we have languages and tooling that can reliably prevent segfaults This is not really an output issue IMO. This is a failing edge case. LLMs are moving the industry away from trying to write software that handles all possible edge cases gracefully and towards software developed very quickly that behaves correctly on the happy paths more often than not.
- simonw 7mo ago> Worst case in a modern agentic scenario is more like "drained your bank account to buy bitcoin and then deleted your harddrive along with the private key" Hence my interest in sandboxes!
- simonw 7mo agoI've seen plenty of decision makers act on bad output from human employees in the past. The company usually survives.