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A comment on The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing. Parent comment

Re:The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding ... by threatofrain on Sunday April 05, 2026 @10:19AM (#47649730)
Those two tasks are just very different. In one world you have provided a complete specification, such as 1 + 1, for which the calculator responds with some answer and both you and the machine have a decidable procedure for judging answers. In another world you have engaged in a declaration for which the are many right and wrong answers, and thus even the boundaries of error are in question.

It's equivalent to asking your friend to pick you up, and they arrive in a big vs small car. Maybe you needed a big car because you were going to move furniture, or maybe you don't care, oops either way.

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Re:The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding ... by lukev on Sunday April 05, 2026 @10:26AM (#47649792)
Yes. That is the point I was making.

Calculators provide a deterministic solution to a well-defined task. LLMs don't.

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Re:The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding ... by bluefirebrand on Sunday April 05, 2026 @05:52PM (#47654261)
Furthermore, it is possible to build a precise mathematical formula to produce a desired solution

It is not possible to be nearly as precise when describing a desired solution to an LLM, because natural languages are simply not capable of that level of precision... Which is the entire reason coding languages exist in the first place

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