AI Anatomy Class · Part 9 · The moment an answer is made

80. Ways to choose

Q. Why not just pick the most likely word every time?

1. Here are the chances for the word after 'I walk to'. Now we have to pick one. How should we choose?
2. Way one is greedy. Like a greedy kid, it always grabs first place, the most likely word. Here that's 'school'.
3. Greedy is steady. Give it the same sentence many times and it always takes first place, so the answer never changes.
4. But it easily goes in circles. Follow first place every time, and 'and meet friends' repeats over and over.
5. Way two is sampling. Spin a wheel whose slices are sized by the probabilities. It's the same draw as in chapter 13.
6. Spin it many times: 'school' comes up most, but 'the' and 'work' show up too. The result changes every time.
7. ChatGPT usually samples, so the same question gets slightly different answers. Temperature (next chapter) sets the slice sizes.

Chapter summary

• Greedy: always picks the most likely word. Steady, but it easily goes in circles.
• Sampling: spins a wheel with slices sized by probability. The result changes every spin.
• ChatGPT usually samples, so the same question gets slightly different answers.