Comment by gzread
6 hours ago
This is a great analogy, because just like AI, microwaves are good for quick fixes, tasks where you don't really care about the quality and would rather minimise the effort.
6 hours ago
This is a great analogy, because just like AI, microwaves are good for quick fixes, tasks where you don't really care about the quality and would rather minimise the effort.
I think the analogy is a bit inaccurate here when people are talking about automation.
Microwaves do one thing, but they do it reliably. Microwaves didn't affect the culinary industry because cooking is far more than just heating food, and many tasks are very difficult to automate. LLMs are more general-purpose - the average Joe is now relying on them as a source of truth, advice and mental work across the board. However, LLMs can't be guaranteed to always be reliable, it's all probabilistic. The threat of automation here is in taking away a lot of the less important or less complex work. Low impact + high precision (microwave) vs. high impact + low precision (AI)
But a microwave does exactly what it says on the tin, every time, without fail.
LLMs require a lot more effort.
Does it? The food's always cold in the middle and you have to stir it then run it again.
Yes but it consistently gives you a hot plate of cold food...
1 reply →
Clearly, you have not tried my microwave's popcorn or defrost settings.
how is it a great analogy? do microwaves improve as fast as AI has been?
Yes, they did, back in their day.