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Ask HN: What extent can LLMs be used to simulate the operation of silicon chips?

4 pointsby K33P4Dover 1 year ago
If they are complex enough, can they simulate data handling and manipulation, for e.g. amplifying a soundtrack while the conventional norm would be to run the audio track through a set of hardware devices for amplification.<p>I have also read instances where LLMs are used as eyes and render the environment on a virtual canvas as they &quot;see it&quot;, they are simulating the operations of a complex biological organ and sense.

3 comments

wmfover 1 year ago
Sure, LLMs can eventually simulate anything in a lossy, ridiculously inefficient way. It&#x27;s not a good idea though.<p>I&#x27;m somewhat reminded of the paper &quot;Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor?&quot; which calls out the weakness of black-box analysis and simulation techniques. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;journals.plos.org&#x2F;ploscompbiol&#x2F;article?id=10.1371&#x2F;journal.pcbi.1005268" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;journals.plos.org&#x2F;ploscompbiol&#x2F;article?id=10.1371&#x2F;jo...</a>
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ATMLOTTOBEERover 1 year ago
To an arbitrary extent. It would probably be really inefficient though. See - universal approximation theorem.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xuwd11.github.io&#x2F;am207&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;functorch.html#:~:text=A%20multi%2Dlayer%20perceptron%20can,one%20hidden%20layer%20based%20perceptron" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xuwd11.github.io&#x2F;am207&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;functorch.html#:~:text=A...</a>.
ekimehtorover 1 year ago
I suppose you could use the LLM to generate a function that would perform the operation you want. I know image classifiers have been used for audio, the audio is converted into a waveform Image and then processed. It should also be possible for AI to generate schematics including logic gates or even functional ICs such as amplifiers or possibly the entire catalogue of 7400 series chips.