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Very cool project. > Backpropagation (gradients derived by hand) What does by hand mean in this context? Also how did you write the readme? It's a curious bl
by andai 3mo ago
Very cool project.
> Backpropagation (gradients derived by hand)
What does by hand mean in this context?
Also how did you write the readme? It's a curious blend of human and AI writing.
- porridgeraisin 3mo agoThe fact that by hand is emphasized so often and so often (see src/handgpt.h comments as well above backward()) makes me think it's AI. Anyways, it looks like gradients derived by hand means they didn't use autograd. They have written out the expression for dL/dW themselves.
- 4gotunameagain 3mo agoI think the readme is clearly LLM generated. The tone, the short sentences, the em dashes, lists, sections.. It all feels like LLM.
- Tiberium 3mo agoThe author is also replying with an LLM on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49180716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49180716
- wikisailor 3mo agoCorrect. No autograd: the expressions for the gradients are written out explicitly in C. There's a gradient check in tests/ that verifies them against centred finite differences on the published header, worst relative error 1.07e-08.
- wikisailor 3mo agoAuthor here. Fair question, and the answer is in the first line of the README: I wrote it, with AI help. Specifically: I wrote it in Spanish first, which is my language, and then translated and condensed it into English with Claude. That's probably the blend you're picking up. The jokes, the structure and the decisions are mine; the English phrasing has fingerprints that aren't. The code is more clear cut and it says so in the header: generated by AI under my direction. I wrote the architecture, the decisions and the validation, not most of the C. I'd rather say that upfront than have someone find it later.