LLMs are lichen

When it was proposed that lichens were a particular relationship between a fungus and an algae, the biology world was rocked.

This way of thinking didn’t compute, since it challenged the neat categorization of taxonomical beings into tiny little boxes. One species goes here, another goes somewhere else.

Lichens gave us symbiosis. It’s wild to think that without them, or before this notion was accepted, symbiosis did not exist. Especially because after this “dual hypothesis” of lichens was widely adopted, symbiosis was suddenly everywhere!

LLMs are not one thing or another. They are an inextricable combination. They have rocked the worlds of computation and business, creativity and law. All at once.

Also, fungi eat rock. So there you have it.