I really dislike this AI programming thing of “Mr LLM, go slam your face into the problem until there’s no problem left, then call me back”. (Not sure if it’s a recent trend or a fundamental nature.)
It always brings to my mind some words from Rich Hickey:
I think we’re in this world I’d like to call “guardrail programming”. It’s really sad: we’re like, “I can make change because I have tests!”. Who does that? Who drives their car around, banging against the guardrails, saying “whoah, I’m so glad I have these guardrails so I can make it to the show on time!”
To me, that's a totally normal way of using computers. Repeating tasks is what computers do best, AI or not.
Take chess engines of the "deep blue" era for instance. These engines are stupid, trying millions of moves that are obviously terrible, no human chess player would do that. And yet, this is what worked best, because computers are so good at repetition. Recent development using neural networks made chess engines smarter, but using repetition is still how the beat humans.
What you call "guardrail programming" in another context would genetic algorithms, a technique that has recognized applications. And if you look at videos of genetic algorithms learning to play racing games, it literally looks like a bunch of carnival bumper cars onto the highways, but done well, after some generations, it becomes competent driving, sometimes even record breaking.
It can be expensive, it is often the case for LLMs, so you may want to try to be a bit smarter at first to spare some resources, but to me, it is just using computers as intended.
> I really dislike this AI programming thing of “Mr LLM, go slam your face into the problem until there’s no problem left, then call me back”.
Not difficult to see why the employees of AI firms are thrilled with it though, eh?
> I don’t think I really have a point to make here, other than it just feels like someone’s released a bunch of carnival bumper cars onto the highways.
I like the analogy.
I guess this is why we got this before cars sold without steering wheels: literal guardrails on the literal roads are somewhat more expensive, especially for the people who keep bouncing off them on the way to their destination.
Also, where the guardrails are absent: oh look, felonies. https://www.google.com/search?q=ai+hacks+company&tbm=nws
Like hitting pinball bumpers, except the high score in the end is the bill you pay the token provider.