> if LLMs "knew" when they're out of their depth, they could be much more useful.
I used to think this, but no longer sure.
Large-scale tasks just grind to a halt with more modern LLMs because of this perception of impassable complexity.
And it's not that they need extensive planning, the LLM knows what needs to be done (it'll even tell you!), it's just more work than will fit within a "session" (arbitrary) and so it would rather refuse than get started.
So you're now looking at TODOs, and hierarchical plans, and all this unnecessary pre-work even when the task scales horizontally very well (if it just jumped into it).
I used to think this, but no longer sure.
Large-scale tasks just grind to a halt with more modern LLMs because of this perception of impassable complexity.
And it's not that they need extensive planning, the LLM knows what needs to be done (it'll even tell you!), it's just more work than will fit within a "session" (arbitrary) and so it would rather refuse than get started.
So you're now looking at TODOs, and hierarchical plans, and all this unnecessary pre-work even when the task scales horizontally very well (if it just jumped into it).