A calculator has a well-defined, well-scoped set of use cases, a well-defined, well-scoped user interface, and a set of well-understood and expected behaviors that occur in response to manipulations of that interface.
Large language models, when used to drive chatbots or similar interactive text-generation systems, have none of those qualities. They have an open-ended set of unspecified use cases.
Recent articles
- The last six months in LLMs, illustrated by pelicans on bicycles - 6th June 2025
- Tips on prompting ChatGPT for UK technology secretary Peter Kyle - 3rd June 2025
- How often do LLMs snitch? Recreating Theo's SnitchBench with LLM - 31st May 2025