use a Large Language Model, or eat Tide Pods?
31 December 2022
The current hot Internet trend is large language models
(LLMs). Before that it was NFTs, and before that it was eating
Tide Pods. I know that these things go in cycles, but perhaps
this hype cycle may have moved on too quickly, and there may be
some advantages to the previous generation. Let's compare.
Availability
Tide Pods are available from many sources including online retailers, supermarkets, and convenience stores.
LLMs require substantial training investment, so are available from a limited number of sources at present.
Advantage: Tide Pods
Mitigating the adverse effects
The health effects of eating Tide Pods are already well understood. Poison control center staff members are already trained in this area, and are reachable quickly with a convenient toll-free call.
Fixing the results of actions taken based on LLM output could require specialized knowledge that presents challenges in training and/or hiring.
Advantage: Tide Pods
Time required
Tide Pods can be eaten in seconds, with or without chewing.
LLMs can produce text faster than most humans can read it, so may represent an open-ended time commitment.
Advantage: Tide Pods
Repurposing
After you have learned not to eat Tide Pods, the rest of the pods in the package are useful for laundry.
Clearly useful applications of LLMs remain to be discovered.
Advantage: Tide Pods
Educational value
Eating Tide Pods helps teach you not to believe everything you find on the Internet
LLMs help teach you not to believe everything you find on the Internet
Advantage: (tie)
This objective evaluation shows that organizations considering
investing in LLMs should also consider, as an alternative, eating
Tide Pods, which may be a technical direction that is faster and
less costly to evaluate. Winding down from an investment in a
hot
technology is always challenging, but will likely be more
manageable for organizations that did not buy in at the top
—where LLMs are today and NFTs were last year—but instead consider
the lessons to be drawn from organizations that are now ending NFT
projects, and increase the ratio of learning to both cost and risk
by choosing a better characterized technology.
Don't eat Tide Pods. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. Don't eat Tide Pods.
Bonus links
Damn girl, look at this confirmed list
⌥ User Stylesheets Are Still Pretty Great and Should Be More Widely Supported
The internet is up for grabs again
User Generated Content and the Fediverse: A Legal Primer
I drove for Lyft for a week and learned its business model is broken
This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
The hidden upside of tech layoffs
Porn, Piracy, Fraud: What Lurks Inside Google’s Black Box Ad Empire
Cross-context behavioral advertising is ‘sale.’ It is time to get over it.
The Unbearable Uselessness of Crypto
“Judas goats” were once key players in meatpacking plants
Junkware is Elder Abuse and a Menace to Society
How Google’s Ad Business Funds Disinformation Around the World
Legacy Cities: an extended remix of my talk at PopTech 2022
