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The LLMentalist Effect (2023)

235 points · 309 comments · jalev

  1. bonoboTP · · focus · HN ↗
    I don't care if it's "intelligent", I don't care if it "has a mind". I don't care if it is "really reasoning", I don't care if it "understands". I don't care if it is "sentient" or "conscious".

    None of this matters for the practical outcome.

    You'd think that this has been understood over the last 4 years, but apparently it keeps circling back to this.

    [Edit: I see that it was written back in 2023. Then (2023) should be added in the submission title]

    If it generates functional output that works, then it works. And it works. It's not a psychic's con when it outputs Lean-verified proofs. It isn't a con when it can find and exploit zero-days.

    The OP is still in the "denial" phase. Most I see are already in "anger" (a blurry fury against everything AI-shaped, from vague reasons piling on all "bad stuff" political reasons they already hated before) or "bargaining" (mathematicians scrambling to come up with a new definition of their job and retcon that it was always the main part anyway). A few are already in "depression" and feel like spectators on the Titanic, and the tiniest sliver is at "acceptance" with some kind of well-informed plan for their future.

    1. chrisjj · · focus · HN ↗
      > If it generates functional output that works, then it works.

      Tried that in legal? Finance? Medicine?

      Good luck with the lost cases, failed deals, harmed patients.

      "If it works, it works" applies only when the work is brute-forceable e.g. vuln search, or is generation of bullsh*t e.g. adverts, phishing scams and deepfakes.

      1. _superposition_ · · focus · HN ↗
        This. So much this. All the major "advances" have been effectively brute forced. Notice the term brute denoting a lack of intelligence.
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