pfortuny 4 days ago

Yes, but the machine itself is deterministic and logically sound.

  • ramesh31 4 days ago

    >Yes, but the machine itself is deterministic and logically sound.

    Because arithmetic itself, by definition, is.

    Human language is not. Which is why being able to talk to our computers in natural language (and have them understand us and talk back) now is nothing short of science fiction come true.

maplethorpe 4 days ago

Even worse is if it's in the other room and your fingers can't reach the keys. It delivers no answers at all!

  • Bootvis 4 days ago

    My point is, needing to use something with care doesn't prevent it becoming from wildly successful. LLM's are wrong way more often but are also more versatile than a calculator.

    • maplethorpe 3 days ago

      > LLM's are wrong way more often but are also more versatile than a calculator.

      LLMs are wrong infinitely more than calculators, because calculators are never wrong (unless they're broken).

      If you input "1 + 3" into your calculator and get "4", but you actually wanted to know the answer to "1 + 2", the calculator wasn't "wrong". It gave you the answer to the question you asked.

      Now you might say "but that's what's happening with LLMs too! It gave you the wrong answer because you didn't ask the question right!" But an LLM isn't an all-seeing oracle. It can only interpolate between points in its training data. And if the correct answer isn't in its training data, then no amount of "using it with care" will produce the correct answer.