Comment by erelong
3 hours ago
a semantics discussion but I think it would be fair to call them "indeterministic tools" and there are other tools that are indeterministic besides LLMs
People try to wrangle the indeterministic outputs through deterministic layers to convert the indeterminism to something determined
I don't think he's trying to make a semantic discussion.
He's trying to unpack various qualities: learning potential, reliability, predictability, tactile feedback, simple construction, etc. Then goes to define tools as those things that have these set of qualities, and automation as those that have these other set of qualities: it does something for you, takes the practice, learning and details away from you, harder to control and can get derailed, etc.
In some of his comment replies, he even says there's a spectrum from tool to automation, because he's focusing on those qualities more so than on the semantics.
no, I think he's quite right to say that there is no such thing as an indeterministic tool. As he says, what defines tool use is precision, mastery and intentionality.
One wields a tool, but you cannot wield a set of dice or a slot machine, a chatbot, or a call center worker. That's not tool use, that's outsourcing or delegation of work. If I play Claude, or I pay a salary worker somewhere else, I have ceased to work, my skills are going to atrophy, my knowledge and my control is, the opposite of what genuine tool mastery implies.
If something's a tool, the more you use it, the more you improve not just narrowly mind you, but in all your faculties. Using an LLM has the exact opposite effect. At best you improve at only one thing, typing text into the LLM, while you atrophy everything else.
The logical terminus of the habitual LLM user, and that is really why 'industry leaders' love them so much, is the worker becoming a Tayloresque factory ape doing nothing but pushing the same button over and over again.
How would people wrangle indeterministic outputs through deterministic layers?
You can multiply /dev/random for how many (non-zero) constants you like, but the result will stay just as random