Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is the first of 13 lessons in a series called 'Modern Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines'. I like the way it is presented; here's a lot of scrolling, but it's also interactive, embedding interactions alongside the argument. The thesis of the first lesson is that "LLMs are predictive text generators. It is remarkable how many complex tasks can be performed in this way. But don't let the impressive capabilities of LLMs lure you into thinking that they understand human experience or are capable of logical reasoning." So, not oracles.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Aug 28, 2025 9:15 p.m.

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