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An LLM is a lossy encyclopedia

(simonwillison.net)
509 points tosh | 2 comments | 29 Aug 25 09:40 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

(the referenced HN thread starts at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45060519)
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baq ◴[02 Sep 25 09:43 UTC] No.45100866[source]▶
It's also important to say what it isn't. LLM detractors, for lack of a better word, expect an oracle and then when they find out it's just a lossily compressed blob of human knowledge with natural language as a query interface they say the tool is useless.

I've got my opinion on whether that's useful or not and it's quite a bit more nuanced. You don't zoom-enhance JPEGs for a reason either.

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1. ale ◴[02 Sep 25 11:06 UTC] No.45101419[source]▶
Aren't the detractors the ones who know for a fact that it's a lossily compressed blob of knowledge and don't blindly fall for the hype?
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2. baq ◴[02 Sep 25 11:12 UTC] No.45101481[source]▶
most of us here know that (I hope), the difference is in the declaration of uselessness.