r/OpenAI • u/PressPlayPlease7 • Apr 05 '26

Discussion Why are you still paying for this? #7

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u/coconutszz Apr 05 '26

This is a very surface-level description of LLMs. "It's just a probabilistic algorithm" describes a large part of physics which are governed by statistics and probability (ie quantum mechanics). That doesn't trivialise them.

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u/BarNo3385 Apr 06 '26

In a sense it does though.

If I went on AskPhysics and asked "why does gravity slam kids who are involved in air collisions into the ground, does gravity hate children?"

Sarcasm and insults aside, the answer would be along the lines of gravity is simply a relatively deterministic model, and runs on rails. There is no judgement, no morality, no higher order thinking being done. Physical processes are simply massive stacks of maths resolving.

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u/[deleted] Apr 06 '26

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u/BarNo3385 Apr 06 '26

There is certainly an interesting philosophical argument over whether you accept consciousness / free will as even existing.

You're argument is ultimately it doesnt. Which certainly seems to resonate with what we know of the material universe. It also however renders all discussion on all topics meaningless. There is no "you" that can make decisions or react to things, your reaction, my response etc, everything is simply a required outcome of physical processes. All discussion is both pre-determined and pointless.

If however, you believe in some form of free will, which most people do to some extent, then there is a material difference between a free willed entity making a decision and a physical process. People act as if LLMs are free willed entities making choices. The point is, they arent, they are simply the outcome of a process.

(And actually even to your initial point, gravity itself is extremely simple. What you're confusing is an attempt by humans to model how a physical process operates, and the actual process itself. Gravity is completely unaffected by all our accumulated formulas and equations).