News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on An LLM is a lossy encyclopedia.

Re:An LLM is a lossy encyclopedia by maerqin on Tuesday September 02, 2025 @05:46AM (#45100884)
I disagree with that analogy, because LLMs have a lot of connections between text fragments, which an encyclopedia doesn't have to such a deep degree. An encyclopedia also can't interpret and output relevant knowledge from an input prompt.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:An LLM is a lossy encyclopedia by flohofwoe on Tuesday September 02, 2025 @05:56AM (#45100956)
It helps a lot to set expectations though, especially when thinking of an encyclopedia not as a row of dusty old books but as an 'archive of human knowledge'.

A slightly more precise analogy is probably 'a lossily compressed snapshot of the web'. Or maybe the Librarian from Snow Crash - but at least that one knew when it didn't know ;)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:An LLM is a lossy encyclopedia by jbs789 on Tuesday September 02, 2025 @06:05AM (#45101015)
It’s an analogy.
[ Parent | on HN ]