> A constant predictable reward is boring, less engaging.
Perhaps but predictable outcome is a very desirable quality. No one wants a hammer that sometimes drives nails and sometimes doesn’t. All of the current harness engineering work is about squeezing predictability out of the LLM.
> Good traffic is not a "reward" for driving to work(!)
Like hell it’s not. I drove into work last Friday and there was no traffic because of the holiday weekend. It was amazing. Had me considering whether Friday should be one of my standard RTO days.
I think you're missing the point. Predictable outcomes are desirable, but they aren't addictive or gambling. People quickly get used to opening the faucet and seeing water come out and stop doing it, whereas people scroll TikTok or channel surf for hours at a time.
In what way was amazing no-traffic "a reward"? What system was rewarding you for what change in behaviour?
You went off on a tangent and I responded. None of this is actually relevant to the topic of whether LLMs are “basically gambling”.
> In what way was amazing no-traffic "a reward"? What system was rewarding you for what change in behaviour?
What does this mean? Are you asking me to describe the dopamine system or are you implying that rewards have to be driven by some external system’s goal?
A reward implies it was given by something outside of your control. The lack of traffic wasn't a reward given to you, it's just a state of the highway.
Perhaps but predictable outcome is a very desirable quality. No one wants a hammer that sometimes drives nails and sometimes doesn’t. All of the current harness engineering work is about squeezing predictability out of the LLM.
> Good traffic is not a "reward" for driving to work(!)
Like hell it’s not. I drove into work last Friday and there was no traffic because of the holiday weekend. It was amazing. Had me considering whether Friday should be one of my standard RTO days.