Why #AI and #GPT are Radically Different from Traditional Software

June 8, 2024

Excellent summary on why #AI and #GPT are radically different from “traditional” software:

“Because software is REALLY good at doing things fast. But it's deterministic. It cannot make smart decisions for you. If you click on a button the same thing will happen every time. If that thing doesn't happen, it's a problem, a bug that needs to be fixed.

Humans on the other hand are non-deterministic. If Dave comes into the room and I ask him "Do you want a coffee?" he may say yes, no, start talking about the F1 race last weekend (which I always try to listen enthusiastically but I think I always fail) or do any other things. Because Dave's brain is not a Boolean search, but most software is.

However, when you ask something from ChatGPT it'll react with the same unpredictability. I tell GPT-4o to write a poem and it might give me a sonnet, a haiku or explain that as an AI large language model developed by OpenAI...

You get it.

So in that regard, ChatGPT and any other LLM is the first non-deterministic software.”

h/t Promptmaster