A few reflections from a conversation I had with my friend Dimitri last week about LLMs.

There are two distinct uses for LLMs that pull in very different directions:

convergent mode ("spackle for toil")

divergent mode ("a muse that super-charges your creativity")

Convergent wants to pull whatever you're doing towards the centroid (professional, safe).

Divergent wants to push you away from the centroid (quirky, random).

In the former, hallucinations are a bug; in the latter, hallucinations are a feature.

In the former mode, the downside of hallucinations is not capped. In the latter mode, there is no downside of hallucinations.

These two different modes require very different orientations, tools, mindsets, etc.