Stop Thinking of LLMs as Next-Token Predictors

Re:Stop Thinking of LLMs as Next-Token Predictors by jameshart on Friday September 04, 2026 @07:11PM (#49571275)

Yep, we’re all just putting one foot in front of the other, hoping we’re doing the right thing to bring about the outcomes we want, trying our best.

But that’s the point: so is an LLM. Putting one token in front of another, hoping it’s doing the right thing to bring about the rewards it’s trained to… trying its best.

So yeah, not ‘next token predictors’. ‘Next token tryers’ maybe.

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Re:Stop Thinking of LLMs as Next-Token Predictors by saghm on Friday September 04, 2026 @11:28PM (#49572829)

There's a pretty huge difference in our understanding of the methodology of how LLMs make decisions and how humans make decisions, so I don't understand why you're arguing that anything about how humans make decisions is relevant to the terminology we use for LLMs.

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