Writing is fundamentally the transfer of information from your brain to my brain. If you have 1000 bits of semantic information you want to transfer, you can't give 300 bits of semantic information to an LLM and have it fill in the remaining 700, because it doesn't know what those 700 bits are. If it's able to guess those 700 bits correctly, then they aren't true semantic information, and you really only have 300 bits you want to transfer. You might as well transfer those bits to me directly, rather than having the LLM add on an extra superfluous 700 bits that I then have to filter out.
I don’t quite think this tracks. Perhaps you want to communicate 1000 bits that are well known and can be referenced with a 300 bit key. Then the LLM can easily retrieve the remaining information. It’s like sending someone a link to the Wikipedia page instead of explaining something yourself.
No, I don’t want to read LLM writing because it is BAD at it. It doesn’t really understand how humans think (because it thinks differently), and doesn’t seem to understand core principles very well (presumably due to the lack of world model), so it can’t write something humans enjoy yet.
That's kind of my point. If the 1000 bits are well known, then their inclusion isn't new semantic information. By pasting an LLM's output, you're deciding for your reader that they don't already know that information, and deciding that your LLM prompt is better than whatever they would to to obtain that information if they lack it. IMO, it's much better to give your readers the 300-bit key, and let them decide for themselves if they want/need to get more information, and if so, how.
Mmm perhaps, but I think you normally have an idea of who your audience is. If this was actually how we talked then I would have just responded to this comment with “known-audience rebuttal. Example. Audience knowledge clarification. Example absurdity comment” and let you work it out. I think it’s normally known to you and the LLM and not known to the person you’re speaking to. Speaking like that would just cause confusion and misunderstanding.
> I think it’s normally known to you and the LLM
I disagree. Unless you gave additional information to the LLM yourself, the LLM doesn't know more than your audience does about what the meaning of such a comment would be. An LLM could certainly come up with something plausible, but it wouldn't necessarily be what you intended.
Yeah I don’t think it could decompress that answer, but most articles are explaining something and most explanations have been done before. The LLM would know in that case. I’m simply saying that you can communicate an idea worth any amount of bits with any smaller amount of bits provided you agree beforehand what they mean. LLMs have access to the entire internet, so we’ve had the chance to agree with them what every term means. But the person you’re writing to may have never heard of this, so you’ll have to communicate the full idea first before you can connect it to its small name.
hatthew · · focus · HN ↗
Writing is fundamentally the transfer of information from your brain to my brain. If you have 1000 bits of semantic information you want to transfer, you can't give 300 bits of semantic information to an LLM and have it fill in the remaining 700, because it doesn't know what those 700 bits are. If it's able to guess those 700 bits correctly, then they aren't true semantic information, and you really only have 300 bits you want to transfer. You might as well transfer those bits to me directly, rather than having the LLM add on an extra superfluous 700 bits that I then have to filter out.
TwelveEyes · · focus · HN ↗
No, I don’t want to read LLM writing because it is BAD at it. It doesn’t really understand how humans think (because it thinks differently), and doesn’t seem to understand core principles very well (presumably due to the lack of world model), so it can’t write something humans enjoy yet.
hatthew · · focus · HN ↗
TwelveEyes · · focus · HN ↗
hatthew · · focus · HN ↗
I disagree. Unless you gave additional information to the LLM yourself, the LLM doesn't know more than your audience does about what the meaning of such a comment would be. An LLM could certainly come up with something plausible, but it wouldn't necessarily be what you intended.
TwelveEyes · · focus · HN ↗