Computing is always abstractions. We moved from plugging to assembly, then to c, then we had languages that managed memory for you -- how on earth can you understand what the compiler should be doing or what it is doing if you don't deal with explicit pointers on a day by day basis.
We bring in libraries when we need code. We don't run our own database, we use something else, and we just do "apt-get install mysql", but then we moved onto "docker run" or perhaps we invoke it with "aws cli". Who knows what teraform actually does when we declare we want a resource.
I was thinking the other day how abstractions like AWS or Docker are similar to LLM. With AWS you just click a couple of buttons and you have a data store, you don't know how to build a database from scratch, you don't need one. Of course "to build a database from scratch you must first create the universe".
Some people still hand-craft assembly code to great benefit, but that vast majority don't need to to solve problems, and they can't.
This musing was in the context of what do we do if/when aws data centres are not available. Our staff are generally incapable of working in a non-aws environment. Something that we have deliberately cultivated for years. AWS outputs are one option, or perhaps we should run a non-aws stack that we fully own and control.
Is relying on LLMs fundamentally any different than relying on AWS, or apt, or java. Is is different from outsourcing? You concentrate on your core competency, which is understanding the problem and delivering a solution, not managing memory or running databases. This comes with risk -- all outsourcing does, and if outsourcing to a single supplier you don't and can't understand is acceptable risk, then is relying on LLMs not?