I find the "Can you ..." phrasing used in this demo/project fascinating. I would have expected the LLM to basically say "Yes I can, would you like me to do it?" to most of these questions, rather than directly and immediately executing the action.
Managers often expect subordinates to just know what they mean, but checking instructions and requirements is usually essential and imo is a mark of a good worker.
"Can you dispose of our latest product in a landfill"...
Generally in UK, unless the person is a major consumer of USA media, "can you" is an enquiry as to capability or whether an action is within the rules.
IME. YMMV.
In this example, if a human responded that way I would assume they were either being passive aggressive or were autistic or spoke English as a second language. A neurotypical native speaker acting in good faith would invariably interpret the question as a request, not a question.
I've asked LLM systems "can you..." questions. I'm asking surely about their capability and allowed parameters of operation.
Apparently you think that means I'm brain damaged?
It's basically an observation on expectations wrt regional language differences. HAND.
I assume it's more a part of explicitly programmed set of responses than it is a standard inference. But you're right that I should be cautious.
ChatGPT, for example, says it can retrieve URL contents (for RAG). When it does an inference it then shows a message indicating the retrieval is happening. In my very limited testing it has responded appropriately. Eg it can talk about what's on HN front page right now.
Similarly Claude.ai says it can't do such retrieval - except through API use? - and doesn't appear to do so either.