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jvanderbotyesterday at 8:31 PM1 replyview on HN

In what sense is the model not predicting?


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danielmarkbruceyesterday at 9:13 PM

There isn't a truth to test against. If I predict the next word in a sequence is "sat", we can check against the sequence. If I predict the roll of a die will be 4, we can check against it. Whether i give 100% or give a probabilistic prediction, we can check against the truth.

If I choose a specific move in chess, it's a choice. It's not a prediction. I might get a score 40 moves later given my choice, but I'm not predicting the next move.

To compare - during pre-training, the model literally tries to predict the next token (probabilistically), the training loop checks against the "right" answer, and the weights are updated based on that check. It's optimized to predict the next token.

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