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I don't disagree that LLMs can do basic arithmetic. That doesn't change my stance. I think it's no different than if you somehow knew a gifted savant human who could do 99% of things well 99% of the time, but failed miserably at the 1%. I am fine with you asking this human to do a back of the envelope calculation. I am not fine with you just uncritically repeating what they say without checking it. Especially when it's a back of the envelope calculation, as you say. It's no different with LLMs. I think the major problem with LLMs is not that they exist and could hallucinate, but that it enables a lot of people who reach for the easy button and just press it without thinking for themselves. They can and should check everything being told to them. They can and should do their own research. When they don't, it can lead to lies being spread. Do you know why a lie can make it halfway across the world while the truth is putting its boots on? Because people don't check for themselves, they don't think for themselves, they just hear what someone else says and repeat it. A lot of people have replaced that someone else with an LLM.
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