[anuramat]

> LLMs don't read

so it's ok to say "SSD read/write speed", but now that we have something closer to the original meaning of the word, someone always has to point out that "LLMs don't have a soul" (or whatever you think is required for it to count as akchyually reading)

do storage devices have souls?

[beng-nl]

If I can just stand up for the nitpicker - arguably in the uncanny valley it’s more natural to point out it’s not reading (by their definition) than outside it (ssd’s).

[anuramat]

makes sense in a philosophical debate or when you're talking to your confused grandparents, but does anyone on hn not know how LLMs work, at least on the level of "tokens, matrices, data, sgd"?

otherwise, that reminder must imply that people do know how it works, and yet they still ascribe to these models some property like qualia, i.e. something other than "being able to turn english into code and compute into shareholder value";

but then if you disagree, why even mention it in the first place? do atheists randomly proclaim "btw god isn't real!" in unrelated conversations with strangers of unknown religious beliefs?