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I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

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Re: I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

#111
LLMs are like any tool, you get what you put in. If you are frustrated with the results, maybe you need to think about what you're doing.

300/5290 functions decompiled and analyzed in less than three hours off of a huge codebase. By next weekend, a binary that had lost source code will have tests running on a platform it wasn't designed for.

Re: I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

#112
Never underestimate the momentum of a poorly understood idea that appears as magic to the average person. Once the money starts flowing, that momentum will increase until the idea hits a brick wall that its creators can't gaslight people about.

I hope that realization happens before "vibe coding" is accepted as standard practice by software teams (especially when you consider the poor quality of software before the LLM era). If not, it's only a matter of time before we refer to the internet as "something we used to enjoy."

Re: I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

#113

I get so confused on this. I play around, test, and mess with LLMs all the time and they are miraculous. Just amazing, doing things we dreamed about for decades. I mean, I can ask for obscure things with subtle nuance where I misspell words and mess up my question and it figures it out. It talks to me like a person. It generates really cool images. It helps me write code. And just tons of other stuff that astounds me…

A lot of software developers have an initial bad experience and assume it's terrible and give up on it. I feel bad for people who haven't yet experienced how useful these models are for programming. Some also just prefer manually entering everything. Those people I will never understand.

It doesn't matter how useful it is, there will always be naysayers who can't see it, or who refuse to see it.

That's okay.

It's not my responsibility to convince or convert them.

I prefer to just let them be and not engage.

Re: I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

#114

I get so confused on this. I play around, test, and mess with LLMs all the time and they are miraculous. Just amazing, doing things we dreamed about for decades. I mean, I can ask for obscure things with subtle nuance where I misspell words and mess up my question and it figures it out. It talks to me like a person. It generates really cool images. It helps me write code. And just tons of other stuff that astounds me…

It would be fine if it were sold that way, but there is so much hype. We're told that it's going to replace all of us and put us all out our jobs. They set the expectations so high. Like remember OpenAI showing a video of it doing your taxes for you? Predictions that super-intelligent AI is going to radically transform society faster than we can keep up? I think that's where most of the backlash is coming from.

Re: I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

#115

I get so confused on this. I play around, test, and mess with LLMs all the time and they are miraculous. Just amazing, doing things we dreamed about for decades. I mean, I can ask for obscure things with subtle nuance where I misspell words and mess up my question and it figures it out. It talks to me like a person. It generates really cool images. It helps me write code. And just tons of other stuff that astounds me…

A lot of software developers have an initial bad experience and assume it's terrible and give up on it. I feel bad for people who haven't yet experienced how useful these models are for programming. Some also just prefer manually entering everything. Those people I will never understand.

Far from just programming too. They're useful for so many things. I use it for quickly coming up with shell scripts (or even complex piped commands (or if I'm being honest even simple commands since it's easier than skimming the man page)). But I also use it to bounce ideas off of when negotiating contracts. Or to give me a spoiler-free reminder of a plot point I'd forgotten in a book or TV series. Or to explain legal or taxation issues (which I of course verify, but it points me in the right direction). Or any number of other things.

As the parent says, while far from perfect, they're an incredible aid in so many areas. When used well, they help you produce not just faster but also better results. The only trick really is that you need to treat it as a (very knowledgeable but overconfident) collaborator rather than an oracle.

Re: I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of software developers have an initial bad experience and assume it's terrible and give up on it. I feel bad for people who haven't yet experienced how useful these models are for programming. Some also just prefer manually entering everything. Those people I will never understand.

It doesn't matter how useful it is, there will always be naysayers who can't see it, or who refuse to see it. That's okay. It's not my responsibility to convince or convert them. I prefer to just let them be and not engage.

I hear you, I'm tired of getting people that don't care to care. It's the people that should know how cool this stuff is and don't - they frustrate me!

Re: I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

#117

I get so confused on this. I play around, test, and mess with LLMs all the time and they are miraculous. Just amazing, doing things we dreamed about for decades. I mean, I can ask for obscure things with subtle nuance where I misspell words and mess up my question and it figures it out. It talks to me like a person. It generates really cool images. It helps me write code. And just tons of other stuff that astounds me…

It's definitely a tech that's here to stay, unlike block chain/nfts

But I mirror the confusion why people are still bullish on it. The current valuation for it is because the market thinks that it's able to write code like a senior engineer and have AGI, because that's how they're marketed by the LLM providers.

I'm not even certain if they'll be ubiquitous after the venture capital investments are gone and the service needs to actually be priced without losing money, because they're (at least currently) mostly pretty expensive to run.

Re: I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of software developers have an initial bad experience and assume it's terrible and give up on it. I feel bad for people who haven't yet experienced how useful these models are for programming. Some also just prefer manually entering everything. Those people I will never understand.

It doesn't matter how useful it is, there will always be naysayers who can't see it, or who refuse to see it. That's okay. It's not my responsibility to convince or convert them. I prefer to just let them be and not engage.

Well said

Re: I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

#119
I'm just glad I have something that can write logic in any unix shell script for me. It's the right combination of thing I don't have to do often, thing that doesn't fit my mental model, thing that works differently based on the platform, and thing I just can't be bothered to master.

Re: I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

#120

I get so confused on this. I play around, test, and mess with LLMs all the time and they are miraculous. Just amazing, doing things we dreamed about for decades. I mean, I can ask for obscure things with subtle nuance where I misspell words and mess up my question and it figures it out. It talks to me like a person. It generates really cool images. It helps me write code. And just tons of other stuff that astounds me…

It would be fine if it were sold that way, but there is so much hype. We're told that it's going to replace all of us and put us all out our jobs. They set the expectations so high. Like remember OpenAI showing a video of it doing your taxes for you? Predictions that super-intelligent AI is going to radically transform society faster than we can keep up? I think that's where most of the backlash is coming from.

Yeah, it won't do your taxes for you, but it can sure help you do them yourself. Probably won't put you out of your job either, but it might help you accomplish more. Of course, one result of people accomplishing more in less time is that you need fewer people to do the same amount of work - so some jobs could be lost. But it's also possible that for the most part instead, more will be accomplished overall.
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