The author observes that a call to GPT-5.6 Luna is only 4-5 orders of magnitude more expensive than grep, and then predicts that at current rates of progress, calling an LLM will soon be cheaper than a grep. I think this is a good time to invoke Stein's Law: "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." These efficiency improvements won't continue forever. It's more likely that the per-call cost of high-quality, compiled software like grep will be a lower-bound that LLMs asymptotically approach, rather than a line that they blow past with perpetual exponential progress. (Barring a true breakthrough in something like quantum computing or room-temperature superconductors.)
What if the tool is more advanced, like an optimizing compiler: `g++ -O3 -march=native -x c++ - <<EOF ... EOF`
If the compiler invocation is sufficiently slow, the llm could consider outputting a binary directly?
For all we know matrix multiplications are a faster way to generate optimized machine code than branchy sequential compiler code with tons of heuristics and passes.
jetrink · · focus · HN ↗
The author observes that a call to GPT-5.6 Luna is only 4-5 orders of magnitude more expensive than grep, and then predicts that at current rates of progress, calling an LLM will soon be cheaper than a grep. I think this is a good time to invoke Stein's Law: "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." These efficiency improvements won't continue forever. It's more likely that the per-call cost of high-quality, compiled software like grep will be a lower-bound that LLMs asymptotically approach, rather than a line that they blow past with perpetual exponential progress. (Barring a true breakthrough in something like quantum computing or room-temperature superconductors.)
stabbles · · focus · HN ↗
If the compiler invocation is sufficiently slow, the llm could consider outputting a binary directly?
For all we know matrix multiplications are a faster way to generate optimized machine code than branchy sequential compiler code with tons of heuristics and passes.
echoangle · · focus · HN ↗
“are” or “could be”?