Ask HN: Are we sure LLMs are that useful in a web search application?

Re:Ask HN: Are we sure LLMs are that useful in a web search ... by smith7018 on Thursday February 09, 2023 @11:31AM (#34726553)

My God, I'm so tired of this response.

It's not a person. It's software. It shouldn't be wrong just like humans.

Imagine opening your banking app and your total savings is wrong. Would you say, "It's okay, people make mistakes, too!" or would you be pissed that your bank's software is incorrect? Why are we pretending like this is any different?

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Re:Ask HN: Are we sure LLMs are that useful in a web search ... by JohnFen on Thursday February 09, 2023 @12:44PM (#34727936)

Because LLMs aren't doing calculations that result in precise mathematical answers like your bank should be doing. All they are is very advanced pattern-matching machines. They match patterns, but those patterns don't always relate to accurate information.

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Re:Ask HN: Are we sure LLMs are that useful in a web search ... by 8note on Thursday February 09, 2023 @05:01PM (#34732224)

I'm not pissed when google doesn't have a good result for my search on the first page, no.

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Re:Ask HN: Are we sure LLMs are that useful in a web search ... by rvz on Friday February 10, 2023 @10:56AM (#34741334)

There you go. The difference is that a human can transparently explain to you step by step how they have concluded to a given answer. Humans have always used multiple methods to explain their decisions transparently when questioned to.

AI machines and especially neural networks which LLMs are based on still cannot explain themselves and are as transparent as a black-box.

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