For just a few parameters, you can understand the model, because you can hold it in your mind. But for machine learning models that's not possible, as they are far more complex.
So a 150 parameter model we "don't understand how it works"?
Readit Newskreetx commented on AI was not invented, it arrived andrewarrow.dev/2025/12/a... · Posted by u/fcpguru
kreetx commented on AI was not invented, it arrived andrewarrow.dev/2025/12/a... · Posted by u/fcpguru
My position is that AI is going to end up being good at certain things, and it's going to be not so good at others, and that mix will change over time, but generally improve. I don't think it's going to replace all jobs and I don't think it's a world-ender.
My job as an engineer is to understand the technology and understand how to deploy it for the benefit of the people that I work for, up to and including myself. There's no room for dogma here. It's purely curiosity, investigation, and trial and error. See what works, see what doesn't.
Personally, I dislike centralized power because I think it's dangerous. And so, one of my goals is to find ways to use AI in a more distributed context that people have control over. Technology accrues benefits to those who deploy it. Therefore, I'd like to find ways for everyone to be able to deploy good technology.
This is also off-topic. Are you seriously using an LLM to participate in hn comments in this manner? (Will rpdillon now be forever lost as a human?)
kreetx commented on AI was not invented, it arrived andrewarrow.dev/2025/12/a... · Posted by u/fcpguru
Statistical models have just a few parameters, machine learning models have billions. Possibly more than a trillion.
The number can be anything, is there a number at which "we don't know" starts?
The model's parameters are in your RAM, you insert the prompt, it runs through the model and gives you a result. I'm sure if you spend a bit of time, you could add some software scaffolding around the process to show you each step of the way. How is this different from a statistical model where you "do know"?
kreetx commented on AI was not invented, it arrived andrewarrow.dev/2025/12/a... · Posted by u/fcpguru
bgwalter is clearly dismissing AI. The post has all the telltale signs.
* Rather than the curious "What is it good at? What could I use it for? We instead get "It's not better than me!". That lacks insight and is intentionally sidestepping the point that it has utility for a lot of people who need coding work done.
* Using a bad analogy protected by scare quotes to make an invalid point that suggests a human would be able to argue with a photocopier or a philosophical treatise. It's clearly the case that humans can only argue with an LLM, due to the interactive nature of the dialogue.
* The use of the word "steal" to indicate theft of material when training AI models, again intentionally conflating theft with copyright infringement. But even that suggestion is not accurate: Model training is currently considered fair use and court findings were already trending in this direction. So even the suggestion it's copyright infringement doesn't hold water. Piracy of material would invalidate that, but that's not what happening in the case of bgwalters code, I don't expect. I expect bgwalter published their code online and it was scraped.
Agree with the sibling comment, posting Claude's assessment that mirrors this analysis. Dismissive and cynical is a good way to put it.
You don't have anything yourself to say on the actual the topic, do you?
kreetx commented on AI was not invented, it arrived andrewarrow.dev/2025/12/a... · Posted by u/fcpguru
If it solves a problem, we generally don't know how it did it. We can't just look at its billions of weights and read what they did. They are incomprehensible to us. This is very different from GOFAI, which is just a piece of software whose code can be read and understood.
Any statistical model does this.
kreetx commented on Avoid UUID Version 4 Primary Keys in Postgres andyatkinson.com/avoid-uu... · Posted by u/pil0u
kreetx commented on Avoid UUID Version 4 Primary Keys in Postgres andyatkinson.com/avoid-uu... · Posted by u/pil0u
If one needs timestamp ordering, then UUIDv7 is a good alternative.
But the author does not say timestamp ordering, he says ordering. I think he actually means and believes that there is some problem ordering UUIDv4.
Yup. There are alternatives depending on what the situation is: with non-distributed, you could just use a sufficiently sized int (which can be rather small when the table is for e.g humans). You could add a separate timestamp column if that is important.
But if you need UUID-based lookup, then you might as well have it as a primary key, as that will save you an extra index on the actual primary key. If you also need a date and the remaining bits in UUIDv7 suffice for randomness, then that is a good option too (though this does essentially amount to having a composite column made up of datetime and randomness).
kreetx commented on Avoid UUID Version 4 Primary Keys in Postgres andyatkinson.com/avoid-uu... · Posted by u/pil0u
From the fine article:
> Random values don’t have natural sorting like integers or lexicographic (dictionary) sorting like character strings. UUID v4s do have "byte ordering," but this has no useful meaning for how they’re accessed.
Using an UUIDv4 as primary key is a trade-off: you use it when you need to generate unique keys in a distributed manner. Yes, these are not datetime ordered and yes, they take 128 bits of space. If you can't live with this, then sure, you need to consider alternatives. I wonder if "Avoid UUIDv4 Primary Keys" is a rule of thumb though.
kreetx commented on AI was not invented, it arrived andrewarrow.dev/2025/12/a... · Posted by u/fcpguru
Hey Claude, can you help me categorise the tone/ sentiment of this statement, in three words?
"After everyone has been exposed to the patterns, idioms and mistakes of the parrots only the most determined (or monetarily invested) people are still impressed."
Claude: Cynical, dismissive, condescending.
The original post and the rest of the comment are about invent vs arrive (discover?). I'm sure I'll be able to find (parts of) your comments, too, that diverge in sentiment.
kreetx commented on AI was not invented, it arrived andrewarrow.dev/2025/12/a... · Posted by u/fcpguru
Imagine that there's a lot of people who are dismissive even now, when the parrots can write their code or crush them in a philosophical discussion.
People disagreeing with the article aren't "dismissing AI". Did you read what it said?