In today’s online world, we rely on language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (AI) for quick answers and helpful suggestions. But there’s more to these fancy tools than meets the eye. Let’s break it down in simple terms.

When you ask a question to an LLM, like, “What’s the capital of France?” it doesn’t just magically know the answer. Instead, it uses patterns from lots of text it’s been trained on to give you a response. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t always tell you where it got that info from. So, sometimes you might get an answer that’s not entirely reliable.

Also, LLMs aren’t like your super-smart friend who knows a ton of stuff. They’re more like a parrot that repeats what it’s heard. They’re good at making sentences and guesses, but they’re not great at knowing what’s true or false.

And here’s another problem: LLMs learn from all sorts of stuff on the internet, even the not-so-trustworthy stuff like social media posts and blogs. So, they can end up spitting out some nonsense along with the good stuff.

Plus, they don’t fact-check their answers. They just throw out words based on what they’ve seen before. So, you might get an answer that sounds right but isn’t actually true.

But hey, it’s not all bad news! LLMs can still be helpful. They’re great for brainstorming and helping you think about things from different angles. Just remember to take what they say with a grain of salt and double-check important stuff yourself.

In the end, while LLMs are handy tools, it’s important to remember their limitations. By understanding how they work and being cautious with the information they provide, we can make the most of their benefits while avoiding the pitfalls of misinformation.