Where's the Humanity in Algorithms, AI and LLM and how does fermented fish sauce become part of a cake recipe?

For many of us we ask where are the humans when algorithms (a simple cake recipe), AI / Artificial intelligence (adapting a cake recipe to our needs) and LLM / Large Language Model (introducing fermented fish sauce as a cake recipe ingredient) appear to be taking over our world as we know it.  And why is it important that the non-technical people realize what's involved and better yet, how to use AI to become a better version of ourselves?

My mother, who grew up in an era where computers consisted of large rooms containing massive electronics mainly run by the government and door to door sales people selling black and white TVs, computers was not something that she saw affecting her life (though that would change when she became a keypunch operator), asked a similar if far less wordy question, which led to this blog post.

Lets start with an Algorithm, the code that results in ads regarding cooking to pop up as soon as you search for the Cake Recipe in your browser's search engine of choice.  An algorithm is a basic (when compared to LLM) concept of taking fixed and predictable steps in coming up with a cake recipe as you prepare the very important celebratory dessert.  In response to your cake recipe search, it'll list a series of popular sites of human baking chefs, each providing a tested step-by-step process you’ll need to avoid a cake disaster (try baking a one egg cake, and you'll know what I mean).

Now on to AI, as you look at that cake recipe and realize that your selected recipe, provided by the algorithm, will create a very sweet flavour, here's where AI comes to the rescue.  Coded to expand and learn from multiple cake recipes available on the Internet, upon your inquiry for a less sweet cake, it would come up with reducing the sugar by a ¼ cup without affecting the texture (though you may find out that advice is overly simplistic and could put a downer on the upcoming celebration).

Here's where LLM succeeds as it will do one better than AI, by coming up with a comprehension of the nuances of why you're looking for a less sweeter cake and unlike the algorithm or AI, will utilize the vast amount of data that humanity has provided to analyze and enhance the recipe to increase the odds of celebration success.  Until, it comes up with “fermented fish sauce” as its chosen ingredient!

Ok, so I understand that “fermented fish sauce”, when used in the right dosage or a couple of drops, will properly react with the sugars to cut through the sweetness and create a savoury taste that'll be the positive talk of your guests.  Until they find out what that special ingredient is.

Back to us humans once again, your very tasty celebration cake becomes a “fermented fish sauce” gasp of “how could you”  and it became a social media faux pax, leading to significant world wide disgust that an LLM would even suggest to the innocent human to bake such a calamity in the first place.  Well the other humans / coders in control of the LLM would have to explain to its vast large language model, that “fermented fish sauce”, when it comes to cake recipes is a no no and to not include that ever again.

So there we have it, not only do we have a better understanding of algorithms, artificial intelligence and large language models, how us non-techy humans can interact with it to come up with the perfect cake recipe, and how the coders help instruct AI to avoid adding disgusting ingredients that can ruin that irreplaceable celebration dessert. Resulting in a better world, with humanity in full control of AI, or so we hope.