The only thing close to a decision that LLMs make is

That’s not true. An “if statement” is literally a decision tree.

The only reason they answer questions is because in the training data they’ve been provided

This is technically true for something like GPT-1. But it hasn’t been true for the models trained in the last few years.

it knows from its training data that sometimes accusations are followed by language that we interpret as an apology, and sometimes by language that we interpret as pushing back. It regurgitates these apologies without understanding anything, which is why they seem incredibly insincere

It has a large amount of system prompts that alter default behaviour in certain situations. Such as not giving the answer on how to make a bomb. I’m fairly certain there are catches in place to not be overly apologetic to minimize any reputation harm and to reduce potential “liability” issues.

And in that scenario, yes I’m being gaslite because a human told it to.

There is no thinking

Partially agree. There’s no “thinking” in sentient or sapient sense. But there is thinking in the academic/literal definition sense.

There are no decisions

Absolutely false. The entire neural network is billions upon billions of decision trees.

The more we anthropomorphize these statistical text generators, ascribing thoughts and feelings and decision making to them, the less we collectively understand what they are

I promise you I know very well what LLMs and other AI systems are. They aren’t alive, they do not have human or sapient level of intelligence, and they don’t feel. I’ve actually worked in the AI field for a decade. I’ve trained countless models. I’m quite familiar with them.

But “gaslighting” is a perfectly fine description of what I explained. The initial conditions were the same and the end result (me knowing the truth and getting irritated about it) were also the same.

This happened to me the other day with Jippity. It outright lied to me:

“You’re absolutely right. Although I don’t have access to the earlier parts of the conversation”.

So it says that I was right in a particular statement, but didn’t actually know what I said. So I said to it, you just lied. It kept saying variations of:

“I didn’t lie intentionally”

“I understand why it seems that way”

“I wasn’t misleading you”

etc

It flat out lied and tried to gaslight me into thinking I was in the wrong for taking that way.

The funny thing about not specifically dealing with misinformation in an LLM is that not trying to account for misinformation will lead to very wild responses in terms of accuracy, and I don’t mean things relating to politics, but things like putting glue into a pizza recipe.

am i the weird one here for only putting effort into services i have other users for or actually enjoy doing?

Absolutely not.

just be grateful you have a job because I couldn’t imagine any company hiring someone in IT with your perspectives.

I actually yelled at (more like dressed down) the person interviewing me for the type of questions they were asking me, and then explain why they were bad questions.

Not only was I hired but I was offered a much higher salary than originally discussed.

My perspectives and knowledge are highly valued.

Ya, the term “3rd world” has since become synonymous with poor or developing countries.

It’s not a correct or accurate term, but it’s still used.

You should look up how many people in the US are under the poverty line.

2GB of ram is useless no matter what operating system you put on it.

Ubuntu 16.04

This is an old photo

You like half agreed with me (businesses need commercial support)

No, I didn’t “agree” with you. I said IF a business needs support for their infrastructure/systems they need to pay for that support regardless who provides that support (Microsoft, Redhat, Canonical, SUSE). If support is not paid for, then Windows becomes supported to the same degree as a Linux distro like Arch, which means “community support”.

I do need some citations

https://2-data.com/a-search-for-digital-sovereignty-eu-governments-shift-from-microsoft-to-linux-libreoffice/

France, Germany, Netherlands. Just to name a few.

I’m reminded of Hamburg’s attempt in 2003 to switch to Linux, which they gave up on after more than a decade because of high costs and user frustration.

You mean Munich? That’s the only story from 2003 that I know of. And that wasn’t a failed attempt. It actually succeeded. One of the often cited stories is that they “switched back”, but that never actually happened. Microsoft made a handshake deal with the city to build a new office in Munich if they switched back to Windows, but a new administration was voted in shortly after and nixed that plan. Then continued the move to Linux.

because of high costs and user frustration

Again, if it’s the Munich story you’re referring to, then what you said is not true. There’s always higher upfront costs when switching systems. You cannot use the transition costs as the prime example of costs. You need to account for the costs over a long period of time.

And users were actually happier with the switch to Linux (in Munich). IT support calls even went down due to the stability benefits of a Linux system.

but accept the reality that every large organization voluntarily chooses Windows for good reasons

They chose Linux Windows because the technology people rarely have a say in business decisions and higher-up execs get fed marketing stuff from Microsoft sales people. Even today I hear all kinds of outlandish nonsense from business execs about Linux and open source. Microsoft has spent billions upon billions in marketing to make anything non-Microsoft seem scary and anti-business. Linux on the other hand has no such marketing.

You’re basically implying that every head of IT department is a moron

No, I’m saying most of them don’t have a choice, don’t care, or frankly don’t know any better. 90% of IT admins go into the field with the same marketing that’s been pushed by Microsoft: “you want to get a good job and good salary? Then you need your Microsoft Server 2xxx certifications!”. I actually have those certs, they’re useless once you learn open source and Linux stuff. Simply because when you learn how to admin Linux you learn how computers work, and that’s common knowledge in the field that Linux admins generally (never always) have a better fundamental understanding of computing systems. Whereas your Microsoft certified power admin mainly learns the high level Microsoft way of doing things.

This isn’t the year 2000, with Linux being some newfangled thing. Everybody knows about Linux.

No, the majority of execs have no clue what it is. They may have heard the word Linux before, and maybe they know it has something to do with their company servers, but that’s about it. Every place I’ve worked at I’ve managed to convince the right people to change company policy about the approved OSes workers can use. And each time the policy was originally “Windows only” because “reasons” that no one could explain.

Let’s look at running Adobe Photoshop on Windows vs. Linux

No, let’s not. Adobe is a garbage company with garbage software. If for some god-awful reason you must use Adobe products, then you install Windows and do your work. For everyone else, they can use the myriad of other, and better, tools that replace each and every one of Adobe’s products.

Microsoft is committed to compatibility and ensure software applications work

That’s not how software development works. At all. Microsoft provides a set of baseline ABIs for software to utilize. It’s up to each software vendor to ensure that their software is updated for each release of Windows. The same as any other OS. If software doesn’t work on a newer version of Windows, or doesn’t work on Linux, then that’s the decision/fault of the software vendor.

On Linux, you’ll need WINE, which introduces a third party required to make Photoshop run.

The funny thing about this statement is the number of assumptions you’ve made. Also, see my previous statement about running Windows if your soul is forsaken and you need to run Adobe software.

So if some Ubuntu security update comes out, and breaks WINE with Photoshop, you’re up shit creek until some random community member fixes it or it happens to get prioritized.

That’s not how WINE works. Additionally if you need something for work then use an alternative available on Linux. For professional graphics and 3D applications many Linux native products exist, and your purchase cones with support.

Also, there are various binary distribution types available on Linux that allow a vendor to package up their software so that it works nearly seamlessly on any Linux distro/version.

That costs money, which is against the initial argument here of Linux being cheaper, and it still doesn’t give you as good of a guarantee as just running Windows would have

This is a strawman argument, and you know it.

How is it a strawman? Ok, let me explain:

You posited a scenario that introduces a high level of complexity and an unofficial install path for software that’s explicitly not supported on Linux. Then you imagine an additional scenario built on the first one where the user/company is running business critical software on that “unstable” software stack, and use that as an example of how a company would lose money as a result.

You may as well have said bicycles are dangerous and cars are safer, because if you ride your bicycle on the freeway you’ll get hit by a car.

That’s a strawman.

Edit: I wrote “Linux” instead of “Windows” in one spot

Munich’s failed attempt to do that in 2003

It wasn’t a failed attempt. Microsoft did a handshake deal to get them to switch back (the news reported it as a “failed” switch to Linux). Then a new administration was voted in and they quickly resumed the rollout to Linux and FOSS software. That second part was never reported by the mainstream media.

Nobody in their right mind would run some community-supported distro

Unless you’re an enterprise customer that pays for enterprise support, Windows is as much of a community-supportered “distro” as Arch.

They would want a commercially supported distro like Redhat, and that’s going to cost money.

No, only if you pay for support.

talk to anyone who’s run IT at a company

Hi, you’re talking to one.

You need great tooling and support to administer a fleet of PCs, and I just don’t think that exists on Linux.

You think wrong. Very wrong.

What PCs and laptops are they going to procure? There’s only like 2 vendors that ship hardware with Linux.

• Lenovo
• Dell
• HP
• Entroware
• System76
• Tuxedo Computers
• Framework
• Purism

And there’s more …

It seems awesome when you’re a teenager but once you have experience working at companies and start to understand what they need in order to run IT

Windows is the last thing I’d ever want to run in an IT department. And believe me, I have plenty of experience. But don’t take my word for it, just look at the European places that are ditching Microsoft completely.

you see why Microsoft dominates the world.

The reasons why are not what you’re implying.

There’s just simply no other competitive option

Even a Mac is competitive against Windows. Linux doubly so. It’s also the reason that all these benchmarks are coming out showing how Windows games run on Linux performance better than on Windows. Don’t even get me started on security. I personally don’t have any Windows computers in my house, and the only Windows VM on my network can’t reach the internet. Only a madman or someone who didn’t know better would let it.

Edit: formatting

Saying the chance of something going sideways is smaller than on Windows isn’t saying much

True. I’ll grant you that.

I’ll pick a distro that’s stable by default

Arch isn’t “unstable” by any means. I’ve been running Arch EndeavourOS as my desktop distro that I develop on for years and it’s entirely reliable. Now I personally wouldn’t run Arch on any of my distros (I go with either Debian or NixOS), but there are people who do it and it works fine.

Edit: I said “Arch” but I meant EndeavourOS, which is Arch with some QoL improvements.

But if my client is angry and my boss is breathing down my neck, and I can’t work because a thing isn’t thing-a’lating, a support path is essential.

Arch is still stable enough for that. The chances of something going sideways is smaller on Arch than on Windows. And unless you’re a medium to large company paying Microsoft for enterprise support, you’re going to be stuck with forums for community help with Windows.

better weather

Uhhh… I guess someone hasn’t been reading the news

AGI

For a minute there I read that as “AG1” and thought “man, are we getting those ads in Lemmy comments now”?

Arch is incredibly stable. The old meme about it needing constant attention hasn’t been true for at least a decade now.

let’s take away all the good productivity tools from our public broadcaster

I think you misread. They suggested giving them better tools.

What about ladies?

Who is going to say it was bad receiving extra money a month?

This guy:

https://lemmy.ca/comment/17809519

Febranber. Those who know, remember.