The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models rep…

Very compelling LLM critique based on a comparison with how psychics operate.

Taken together, these flaws make LLMs look less like an information technology and more like a modern mechanisation of the psychic hotline.

Delegating your decision-making, ranking, assessment, strategising, analysis, or any other form of reasoning to a chatbot becomes the functional equivalent to phoning a psychic for advice.

The impact of the technology is undeniable in my opinion but there’s also an alarming golden hammer syndrome associated with it and I think this is a good mental model for that.

Im finding there’s a strong correlation with how prominent the AI contribution to something is and the likelihood of it being crappy. I think it’s at its best when used as a very effective new form of autocomplete, and I personally see a lot of emperor’s new clothes hype about what it achieves when it takes centre stage.