[muzani]

I've always called LLMs like the Watt steam engine. LLMs are an engine designed to convert electricity into attention.

You use an engine to pump water and drill holes. Then they got more complex and moved heavy objects. Then they started powering warships. Warships were always powered by wind but the engine gave just enough power to build ships out of heavier materials and carry heavy armaments, which changed the balance of power, and led to a third of the world declaring independence from European colonial powers.

LLMs are like that. They can process a lot of text. They can think better than humans because they're doing large searches. They can be far more creative than any human. We're not there yet though, but there's a century gap between the Watt engine and the steam powered warships.

Calling it AI has had... very negative effects on how people use the technology. Instead of using it to process things, they're used on a layer that they don't belong to. People are trying to accelerate to the warship era with lots and lots of money, but money doesn't work that way.