A few riffs on LLMs.

An intuition for things that LLMs will get right: if Wikipedia has explained the concepts well.

Those facts are likely to also ripple out and inform lots of other sources across the internet, making it way more likely that the LLM picks up the pattern.

Remember, the query stream for a system with a quality dynamic coevolves with the underlying quality.

The swarm of users will tend to use it for things it's good at, and the creators of the system will tend to improve behaviors they see real users doing.

LLMs are electric bicycles for the mind.

They are like bikes in that they help you go where you want to go and make your agency have more leverage.

Adding on the "electric" accentuates the underlying bike properties (e.g. you don't need a license for either)… but also changes some of them.

It's difficult to get yourself in too much trouble with a normal bike, but an electric bike is another story.

LLMs as the well-read friend who is eager and easy to talk to, and remembers the big ideas very well but sometimes gets the details wrong.

Good taste and quality control become the human responsibility.