Simon Willison

If you can use an LLM to review every page of 10,000 pages of police abuse reports. to pull out vital details. It doesn't give you the story, but it gives you the leads. It gives you the leads to know, okay, which of these 10,000 reports should I go and spend my boot investigating?

If you can use an LLM to review every page of 10,000 pages of police abuse reports. to pull out vital details. It doesn't give you the story, but it gives you the leads. It gives you the leads to know, okay, which of these 10,000 reports should I go and spend my boot investigating?

But the thing is, you could do that today, but I feel like the knowledge of how to do that is still not at all distributed. people get, these things are very difficult to use, people get very confused about what they're good at, what they're bad at, like will it just hallucinate details at me, all of that kind of thing.

But the thing is, you could do that today, but I feel like the knowledge of how to do that is still not at all distributed. people get, these things are very difficult to use, people get very confused about what they're good at, what they're bad at, like will it just hallucinate details at me, all of that kind of thing.

I think three years is long enough that we can learn to use these things and broadcast that knowledge out effectively to the point that the kinds of reporters who are doing like investigative reporting will be able to confidently use this stuff without any of that fear and doubt over, is it appropriate to use it in this way?

I think three years is long enough that we can learn to use these things and broadcast that knowledge out effectively to the point that the kinds of reporters who are doing like investigative reporting will be able to confidently use this stuff without any of that fear and doubt over, is it appropriate to use it in this way?

So yeah, this is my sort of optimistic version of we're actually going to know how to use these tools properly, and we're going to be able to use them to take on interesting and notable projects.

So yeah, this is my sort of optimistic version of we're actually going to know how to use these tools properly, and we're going to be able to use them to take on interesting and notable projects.

And on top of that, if you want to do that kind of thing, you need to be able to do data analysis. Today, you still kind of need most of a computer science degree to be a data analyst. That goes away. Like LLMs are so good at helping build out, like they can write SQL queries for you that actually make sense. You know, they can do all of that kind of stuff.

And on top of that, if you want to do that kind of thing, you need to be able to do data analysis. Today, you still kind of need most of a computer science degree to be a data analyst. That goes away. Like LLMs are so good at helping build out, like they can write SQL queries for you that actually make sense. You know, they can do all of that kind of stuff.

So I think the level of technical ability of non-programmers goes up. And as a result, they can take on problems where normally you'd have had to tap a programmer on the shoulder and get them to come and collaborate with you.

So I think the level of technical ability of non-programmers goes up. And as a result, they can take on problems where normally you'd have had to tap a programmer on the shoulder and get them to come and collaborate with you.

It's not so much dystopian, but I think we're going to get privacy legislation with teeth in the next three years. Not from the federal government, because I don't expect that government to pass any laws at all, you know, but... But like California, states like California, things like that, because the privacy side of the stuff gets so dark so quickly.

It's not so much dystopian, but I think we're going to get privacy legislation with teeth in the next three years. Not from the federal government, because I don't expect that government to pass any laws at all, you know, but... But like California, states like California, things like that, because the privacy side of the stuff gets so dark so quickly.

The fact that we've now got universal facial recognition and all of this kind of stuff. And I feel like the legislation there needs to be on the way this stuff is used. In fact, the AI industry itself needs this because the greatest fear people have in working with these things right now is it's going to train the model on my data.

The fact that we've now got universal facial recognition and all of this kind of stuff. And I feel like the legislation there needs to be on the way this stuff is used. In fact, the AI industry itself needs this because the greatest fear people have in working with these things right now is it's going to train the model on my data.

And it doesn't matter what you put in your terms and conditions saying we will train a model on your data. Nobody believes them. The only thing I think that gets that, I think that's where you need legislation even say we are following California bill X, Y, Z. And as a result, we will not be training on your data. At that point, maybe people start trusting it.

And it doesn't matter what you put in your terms and conditions saying we will train a model on your data. Nobody believes them. The only thing I think that gets that, I think that's where you need legislation even say we are following California bill X, Y, Z. And as a result, we will not be training on your data. At that point, maybe people start trusting it.

And so if I was in a position to do so, I'd be lobbying on behalf of the AI companies for stricter rules on how the privacy stuff works just to help win that trust back.

And so if I was in a position to do so, I'd be lobbying on behalf of the AI companies for stricter rules on how the privacy stuff works just to help win that trust back.