It might seem that LLMs have sucked all the air out of the room, this is why. If you find LLMs boring, you are in for a very boring couple of decades - because it's not going away.
Of course, once you actually try to use it for any real work that isn't a toy project with a trillion examples online, you very quickly run into the myriad of flaws. But they're not using it deeply like that, they're just interested in how they can cut costs or prop up their own product by wow-ing other managers with AI features even if they don't make a lick of sense from an end-user perspective.
This isn't even to say it's completely useless, just that the hype and marketing is so insanely divergent from the reality, it's shocking. For me, it's at best a 5% productivity boost for very specific tasks like formatting structured text or something like that, but I wouldn't say that justifies a 500 billion dollar investment...
It’s not “just managers”. People are legit using copilot and it is saving time and helping develop better code. There are 100+ engineers in my company using it. And it’s not just copiloting, it is better than Wikipedia for explaining RFCs or academic papers. That is very important for ramping people when they can interactively ask hundreds of questions to learn about something without bothering top engineers.
You really need to actually get some real world experience as not just pop off.
Anyone who refers to LLMs as “stochastic parrots” has made their choice and is not interested in understand what areas can benefit and what areas cannot. They’re just scared and ignorant.
I do use chatgpt/claude for quickly creating first draftw of frontend pages as I find it quicker, but I have to do extensive edits to get it right. But anything non-boiler plate I am faster writing it myself.
I have also quickly found it is a stochastic parrot but that's ok for boilerplate stuff. It is useless at anything complicated and quickly starts hallucinating methods, parameters and functions when you point out problems with the code.
I am beginning to believe that anything niche, where it can't steal from its training data, and it will always be utterly useless.
I am curious how you feel it's so important to 100+ engineers, how do you use it that makes it effective for you?
LLMs are a totally useful tool! They definitely help me write all the bash scripts I consistently forget.
But the deep stuff where the value lies? It starts to fall apart quickly.
I suspect the next refrain is gonna be along the lines of me using it wrong, or using the wrong model, or the wrong prompt, or this or that. At the end of the day, if even after arduously trying to use it pretty much daily I still find all the models so far useless for real work, then no amount of fanboyism is going to convince me to disregard the reality of it as I experience it.
I can write the most insanely in-depth prompt on the planet (wasting 10 minutes of my time in the process), and 9 times out of 10 the reply I get is barely any more coherent than a single sentence along the lines of "Give me X" would've given me back.
> it is better than Wikipedia for explaining RFCs or academic papers.
I dread the future we're creating where people are relying on LLMs to parse RFCs or papers.
> Anyone who refers to LLMs as “stochastic parrots” has made their choice and is not interested in understand what areas can benefit and what areas cannot.
You're arguing with a strawman as I haven't used the word stochastic or parrot anywhere in the comment you're replying to or have implied anything of the sort about LLMs, and I'm even saying that I don't think it's completely useless, just not nearly as useful as the hype would lead one to imagine. Did you perhaps put my comment through an LLM and thus were arguing against imaginary points that I never made?
> I dread the future we're creating where people are relying on LLMs to parse RFCs or papers.
Amen & Hallelujah (forgive) We're ALL Jock Tamshun's bairns ...
Hit yer FLAGGIT... I amn Scot's Arysh, that means "G__ Children"
Sad fact, this "future" got ahead of us.
Still, this story is far from over.
It is not we were sleeping only that AI / LLM has no need to.
Run THIS though whatever "DAVE I CAN'T DO... " boogalooz
Make WE understand.
How can this AI / LLM do" (PLz Follow along)
#1 slake THIRST ~ no drinking water, living beings? SHOW US put a water tank in a truck? What profit will ye' boogz gain there?
Please show verifiable proof AI has mitigated this NEED.
#2 How does said AI / LLM feed those STARVING rain Manna -food- (please forgive Western ref) for starved refugees? Wilderness?
Please present tangible proof.
#3 Explain (like I AM 5) how's this Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot BOOGALOO able to concieve a child?
Eaux dear, & hayell yeah I forkin went there but MANY would be grateful to see verifiable evidence this has been accomplished.
WE'll wait but we DO NEED TO KNOW
MAKE US UNDERTAND
Provide verifible tangible physical evidence.
What's 'AI' (et alia) bring to mitigate NEED.
Water,
Food.
Survival?
For Human LIFE?
Riddle US that, AI?
H-Sapiens (?) is no "Special species" What doth AI offer to ALL life on this 3r'd rock from the sun?
SHOW US HOW YOU CAN
Sincere Respects,
Virginwidow
AKA An0n.1984 AKA Ånne Äůghnimax
P.S. (post script, kids)
Per GBNF Teacher:
G__ Forgives. OUTLAWS DON'T. We simply help make certain nobody misses their interview
> I dread the future we're creating where people are relying on LLMs to parse RFCs or papers.
Amen & Hallelujah (plz allow western reference)
Arseh0lez in the mix? go ahead, Hit yer FLAGGIT
We're ALL Jock Tamshun's Bairns ... Meanin' "ALL G__ Children"
Myself are Scot's Arysh. Readers might be in China, Iraq, N. Korea. It still stands ~ ALL meanin' ALL Jock Tamshun's bairn. All means ALL, ya see?
That said, this story is far from over.
'AI' don't know peanut butter from cat poop
How'd AI / LLM do for IRL (in real life) Jeopardy - NO play on words.
Let's try THIRST (no water) for $100, Alex.
Has AI / LLM ever slaked THIRST ~ no drinking water? Living beings?? Did ever 'AI/LLM' put a water tank on a pickup truck? SHOW US (or What profit will ye' boogaloo's gain there?) We're open minded, simply SHOW US
How about Starvation for $500, Alex? WHOOPEE The Daily Double!
Has AI / LLM EVER fed the STARVING Or rain Manna (overlook Western ref) upon starving refugees? Wilderness? Please, (please?) show factual examples? PLEASe show us what AI/LLM has done to remedy this NEED
Let's try immaculate conception for $700 - Invoke our absent SArCASM flag -
Explain how's this Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot BOOGALOO AI might approximate companionship much less intimacy never mind concieve life. Merely curious
This is a Genuine need of all life forms (cockroaches included) even P. Dorov (telegram) ~ end snarkasm ~
Does there exist ANY verifiable evidivence supporting how this "AI / LLM" provides any HELP for the needs of ALL life, including even primates?
MAKE US UNDERTAND
Exactly (and be specific)
What does 'AI' (et alia) bring to mitigate fundamental NEED.
Water,
Food.
Company.
LIFE?
HOW DOES tHIS HELP
Genuinely & with Deep Sincerety we ask?
Sincere Respects,
Virginwidow
AKA An0n.1984 AKA Ånne Äůghnimax
And... While we're at it kids (acronyms baffle old folks) try GFOD. Try Urban Dictionary, Wikipedia. Giggle
If you mean "have you tried using an LLM like ChatGPT or Claude for doing development work", then you're wrong.
I'm very confident in saying this, both because I personally use AI for programming and get a lot of value from it, and also because almost everyone else I know in real life also uses AI for programming.
But also because there are dozens/hundreds of accounts of very good developers getting a lot of value from AI in their work.
So at this point, insisting AI products are terrible doesn't say much about the AI products, so much as it says something about your ability to get value out of them.
> I'm the CEO of Hipposys Ltd, a boutique Data & AI Engineering shop (www.hipposys.com). We specialize in building RAG systems, Data Warehouses, and anything else related to the intersection between Data & AI. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at edan@hipposys.com, and we can see if we are a good fit!
Secondly, you're confusing cause and effect. I've been in the industry for more than twenty years working on many different things, and my company has done mostly data engineering work for most of its existence, the AI engineering is a relatively-new (past year or so) shift.
I don't think highly of AI because I work in AI - I work in AI because I think highly of it!
if I was in the first cohort I would think long and hard how to move to the second…