Re:Ask HN: Why are LLM's made intentionally non-deterministic?
by mojuba on Tuesday January 06, 2026 @02:15AM
(#46509570)
Yes but that doesn't explain why we aren't given a choice. Program code is boringly deterministic but in many cases it's exactly what you need while non-determinism becomes your dangerous enemy (like in the case of some Airbus jets being susceptible to bit flips under cosmic rays)
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Re:Ask HN: Why are LLM's made intentionally non-deterministic?
by dtagames on Tuesday January 06, 2026 @09:59AM
(#46513080)
The current way to address this is through RAG applications or Retrieval Augmented Generation. This means using the LLM side for the natural language non-deterministic portion and using traditional code and databases and files for the deterministic part.
A good example is bank software where you can ask what your balance is and get back the real number. A RAG app won't "make up" your balance or even consult the training the find it. Instead, the traditional code (deterministic) operations are done separately from the LLM calls.