Rich Hickey argues LLMs are automation, not tools, and that using them skips learning
Overview
Rich Hickey argues that LLMs are automation rather than tools.
He defines a tool as something a user wields with continuous control and feedback, while an LLM acts on its own after receiving a request. The report, posted to Hacker News, adds his view that using an LLM to read papers or write code means the user misses the learning that comes from doing that work, such as building expertise and forming arguments.
Written by AI from the articles below · updated Oct 12, 8:00 PM ET
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- Hacker News · AI (150+ points)BlogRich Hickey argues AI is automation, not a tool
AIRich Hickey argues that LLMs are automation, not tools, because a tool is wielded with continuous control and feedback while an LLM acts on its own after a request. He says using an LLM to read papers or write code means the user misses the learning that comes from doing that work, such as building expertise and forming arguments.
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