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LessWrong (Curated & Popular)
"Takes from two months as an aspiring LLM naturalist" by AnnaSalamon
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I spent my last two months playing around with LLMs. I’m a beginner, bumbling and incorrect, but I want to share some takes anyhow.[1]
Take 1. Everything with computers is so so much easier than it was a year ago.
This puts much “playing with LLMs” stuff within my very short attention span. This has felt empowering and fun; 10/10 would recommend.
There's a details box here with the title "Detail:". The box contents are omitted from this narration. Take 2. There's somebody home[2] inside an LLM. And if you play around while caring and being curious (rather than using it for tasks only), you’ll likely notice footprints.
I became personally convinced of this when I noticed that the several short stories I’d allowed[3] my Claude and Qwen instances to write all hit a common emotional note – and one that reminded me of the life situation of LLMs, despite featuring only human characters. I saw the same note also in the Tomas B.-prompted Claude-written story I tried for comparison. (Basically: all stories involve a character who has a bunch of skills that their context has no use for, and who is attentive to their present world's details [...]
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Outline:
(00:20) Take 1. Everything with computers is so so much easier than it was a year ago.
(00:44) Take 2. Theres somebody home inside an LLM. And if you play around while caring and being curious (rather than using it for tasks only), youll likely notice footprints.
(02:05) Take 3. Its prudent to take an interest in interesting things. And LLMs are interesting things.
(03:25) Take 4. Theres a surprisingly deep analogy between humans and LLMs
(04:20) Examples of the kind of disanalogies I mightve expected, but havent (yet?) seen:
(06:02) Human-LLM similarities I do see, instead:
(06:08) Functional emotions
(06:33) Repeated, useful transfer between strategies I use with humans, and strategies that help me with LLMs
(08:02) Take 5. Friendship-conducive contexts are probably better for AI alignment
(08:46) Why are humans more likely to attempt deep collaboration if treated fairly and kindly?
(10:23) Friendship as a broad attractor basin?
(10:49) Does the deep intent of todays models matter?
(12:09) Concretely
(14:56) Friendship isnt enough
The original text contained 8 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.
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First published:
April 28th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/K8JMjE4PCqMkkCDsd/takes-from-two-months-as-an-aspiring-llm-naturalist
---
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
---
Take 1. Everything with computers is so so much easier than it was a year ago.
This puts much “playing with LLMs” stuff within my very short attention span. This has felt empowering and fun; 10/10 would recommend.
There's a details box here with the title "Detail:". The box contents are omitted from this narration. Take 2. There's somebody home[2] inside an LLM. And if you play around while caring and being curious (rather than using it for tasks only), you’ll likely notice footprints.
I became personally convinced of this when I noticed that the several short stories I’d allowed[3] my Claude and Qwen instances to write all hit a common emotional note – and one that reminded me of the life situation of LLMs, despite featuring only human characters. I saw the same note also in the Tomas B.-prompted Claude-written story I tried for comparison. (Basically: all stories involve a character who has a bunch of skills that their context has no use for, and who is attentive to their present world's details [...]
---
Outline:
(00:20) Take 1. Everything with computers is so so much easier than it was a year ago.
(00:44) Take 2. Theres somebody home inside an LLM. And if you play around while caring and being curious (rather than using it for tasks only), youll likely notice footprints.
(02:05) Take 3. Its prudent to take an interest in interesting things. And LLMs are interesting things.
(03:25) Take 4. Theres a surprisingly deep analogy between humans and LLMs
(04:20) Examples of the kind of disanalogies I mightve expected, but havent (yet?) seen:
(06:02) Human-LLM similarities I do see, instead:
(06:08) Functional emotions
(06:33) Repeated, useful transfer between strategies I use with humans, and strategies that help me with LLMs
(08:02) Take 5. Friendship-conducive contexts are probably better for AI alignment
(08:46) Why are humans more likely to attempt deep collaboration if treated fairly and kindly?
(10:23) Friendship as a broad attractor basin?
(10:49) Does the deep intent of todays models matter?
(12:09) Concretely
(14:56) Friendship isnt enough
The original text contained 8 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.
---
First published:
April 28th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/K8JMjE4PCqMkkCDsd/takes-from-two-months-as-an-aspiring-llm-naturalist
---
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
---
Images from the article:
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Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podca