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Ask HN: Why 17?
If I ask an LLM to pick a number between 1 and 30, it always picks 17. Tried with multiple models. Why 17?
- jake_and_fatman 21d ago[dead]
- curiousObject 21d agoProbably because it’s trained by humans and humans are more likely to choose certain numbers when they’re asked to choose randomly. 7 is a popular choice https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-often-pick-17-as-a-random-number-when-asked-to-choose-between-1-and-20-and-what-makes-it-so-special-compared-to-other-numbers https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-often-pick-17-as-a-rando...
- codevark 21d ago[dead]
- Nata_Elisym 20d agolucky number
- runjake 19d ago[flagged]
- boltguo 19d agoThe model selects answers based on learned probabilities; for this type of question, the probability associated with "17" is relatively high, which is why it appears frequently.
- ethan-winters 19d agohmm !