small year-end observation of GenAI/LLM/transformer

gotten my own evidence of how far GenAI, based on the Transformer model, is going (or is going nowhere) yesterday while finalising my last piece of homework for 2025. GenAI, based on the Transformer model, works fundamentally by predicting what word(s) come next. and what made this ‘prediction’ possible? the dataset used in the training that the models have gone through informs this. in short, the Transformer, while ‘creative’, is creating based on existing patterns derived from dataset. and who created this dataset(s)? human thinking, thoughts, ideas, formed into words in the pre-GenAI era. and that dataset has long runout by now. you may read this article by de Gregorio to see all the ideas i have mentioned fall together.

long story short, whatever LLM provides you, it’s something that existed out there in its mega training dataset.

so, now back to my observation. this is the statement i wrote/created:
“With the advent of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), cyber actors have harnessed it for autonomising complex hacking activities”

after feeding the statement into PAIR (powered by claude), platform suggested:

“autonomising” –> “automate“ (clearer expression)

what’s clear, what’s not clear is subjective. but, “clearer” here is a conclusion of the algorithms based on the dataset. and why is “autonomising” less ‘clear’? by design, ‘clearness’ has to be interpreted based on its training dataset. begs another question, autonomising vs. automating/automate, which term is likely to appear more often in the dataset, and thus lends to the prediction of ‘clearness’? from my author’s point-of-view, PAIR’s suggestion is definitely not ‘clearer’ in representing what i intended for my readers. and, ‘autonomising’ is likely a relatively rare concept out there at the moment. to me, in this case, LLMs’ greatest limitation of being bounded by its dataset is somewhat revealed. asking a far stretch question, is the current conception of LLM/transformer going to lead to AGI? i think the answer is clear.

of cats and guardians of staircases

how many cats and guards of staircases have you observed in your life? no? not sure? read on …

The Ashram Cat (aka The Guru’s Cat)
An esteemed guru (spiritual teacher) is teaching his disciples, but an ashram cat constantly distracts the students by wandering around. To prevent the distraction, the guru orders his disciples to tie the cat to a post or tree during lessons or evening worship. This practice continues daily. Generations of gurus, disciples, and cats pass away, but the act of tying a cat during the lesson becomes a deeply ingrained, sacred tradition.

The Guardian of Staircase
John F. Barker in Roll Call tells the story that for more than twenty years, for no apparent reason, an attendant stood at the foot of the staircase leading to the House of Commons. At last someone checked and discovered that the job had been held in the attendant’s family for three generations. It seems it originated when the stairs were painted and the current attendant’s grandfather was assigned the task of warning people not to step on the wet paint. (source acknowledgement: www.lecturesbureau.gr)

time has changed, ubiquitous network connections and mobile devices and apps have arrived, and GenAI has descended. but things done yesterday are continued today, tomorrow, and probably the day after tmr. who, especially minions, dare question ‘traditions’ or remove guards from anywhere?