Thread

1. walrus01 · 1785887768 · focus · HN ↗

   I wish that "small" LLMs would stop being confidently very incorrect. Admittedly this is a bit of an intentionally esoteric test, but the confident way in which it presents a totally incorrect answer is a bit concerning.

   "please write 250 words on the etymology and history of the word schlong"

   <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pastes.io&#x2F;uhshFgn4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pastes.io&#x2F;uhshFgn4

   The actual origin of the word is from middle high German and Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jewish communities.

   For comparison qwen 3.6 35B A3B does perfect on this and will give a solid description of the word&#x27;s real origins and how it has made it into casual profanity&#x2F;vulgarity as used in US English, and even mentions specific stand-up comedians and famous public figures of specific ethnic&#x2F;religious origin in the US NE who introduced it into wider use.

   Ask it for something that&#x27;s not a narrow niche scientific or technical field, but something that would be less common to make it into a 20B size model, and see just how it does.

   chat test link: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;chat.deepgrove.ai&#x2F;">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;chat.deepgrove.ai&#x2F;

   1. brainless · 1785895108 · focus · HN ↗

      Would it not be better to ask models to search the topic on the Internet and then answer? I do not understand why we expect small LLMs to answer from own knowledge.

      1. walrus01 · 1785896936 · focus · HN ↗

         I don&#x27;t, really, but 20B is also not that small... It&#x27;s an intentionally weird question to see how confidently incorrect something will be. It certainly writes a plausible sounding explanation that could fool someone for whom English is their 2nd or 3rd language, or is not familiar with specific North American slang.

         It&#x27;s also something I&#x27;ve seen has great results with esoteric individual pieces of knowledge that works fine in a Q6 or Q8 quantized LLM but breaks down in a bad way at worse quantization.

         1. sznio · 1785914151 · focus · HN ↗

            Parameter count is not everything.

            20b parameters * 1.5 bits per parameter is just 30 billion bits, about 3.75gb

            a full 20b fp16 is about 40GB.

            I find it weird how a smaller model still produces decent text, except it bullshits all the way.

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