>I think LLMs should not be seen as knowledge engines but as confidence engines.
This is a good line, and I think it tempers the "not just misinformed, but misinformed with conviction" observation quite a bit, because sometimes moving forward with an idea at less than 100% accuracy will still bring the best outcome.
Obviously that's a less than ideal thing to say, but imo (and in my experience as the former gifted student who struggles to ship) intelligent people tend to underestimate the importance of doing stuff with confidence.
Confidence has multiple benefits. But one of those benefits is social - appearing confident triggers others to trust you, even when they shouldn’t.
Seeing others get burned by that pattern over and over can encourage hesitation and humility, and discourage confident action. It’s essentially an academic attitude and can be very unfortunate and self-defeating.
This is a good line, and I think it tempers the "not just misinformed, but misinformed with conviction" observation quite a bit, because sometimes moving forward with an idea at less than 100% accuracy will still bring the best outcome.
Obviously that's a less than ideal thing to say, but imo (and in my experience as the former gifted student who struggles to ship) intelligent people tend to underestimate the importance of doing stuff with confidence.