Boring is good

"The initial, feverish enthusiasm for large language models (LLMs) is beginning to cool, and for good reason. It's time to trade the out-of-control hype for a more pragmatic, even "boring," approach. A recent MIT report shows that 95% of companies implementing this technology have yet to see a positive outcome. It's understandable to feel confused. When I get confused, I write. This is why I wrote the first part of this series, Hype is a Business Tool as the online debate had become so overheated."

"In part 2, The Timmy Trap, I covered why we are, surprisingly, a large part of this hype problem. We've allowed ourselves to be fooled, confusing an LLM's language fluency with actual intelligence. LLMs have effectively hacked our social protocols, fooling us into believing they are more intelligent than they are. So in this final part, I want to answer the question: why should we still care? The tech is problematic, and signs point to the bubble bursting."

"In his 1989 paper, The Dynamo and the Computer, Paul David describes how as technology matures, its impact changes dramatically. He uses the example of the dynamo, an old-fashioned term for a powerful electric motor. This power source completely changed the Industrial Revolution. Early factories were tied to rivers to harness water power, but the dynamo freed them from this geographic limitation. Initially, factories had just one large dynamo, which required a complicated system of pulleys to distribute power to the rest of the building."

Initial enthusiasm for large language models (LLMs) is cooling as practical outcomes lag; a recent MIT report finds 95% of companies implementing LLMs have not seen positive results. Fluency in language generation has led users to conflate output with intelligence, with LLMs exploiting social protocols to appear more capable. Signs point to a bubble and a likely Trough of Disillusionment, but technological maturation often shifts impact over time. Historical examples show early centralized solutions can evolve into distributed, affordable components that enable new workflows and productivity gains, suggesting potential long-term value despite short-term disillusionment.

Read at Jenson