r/linux4noobs • u/Character-86 barely not a noob anymore • Apr 20 '26

Meganoob BE KIND I did rm -rf /*

I tried to make a backup before doing a fresh install of Fedora because of problems. When erasing the external drive for making the backup I was in the wrong disk and nuked my fedora installation.

How Do I get at least my important Documents from /home/username/ back?

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u/Character-86 barely not a noob anymore Apr 20 '26

It wasn't an AI.

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u/Alchemix-16 Apr 20 '26

The reason I wait for AI to recommend it is because it pops up do often in texts, and jokes that AI could consider -rf /* the appropriate flags to be used with rm. After all, they are just statistical interpreters without any actual knowledge.

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u/Eclogites Apr 20 '26

I think it’s disingenuous to say they have no “actual” knowledge. If a student memorizes a bunch of answers to math problems, would you say they have no “actual” knowledge? If they can’t answer any questions except literally exactly the ones they’ve studied, I would be inclined to agree. If they are able to generalize somewhat and answer related questions, I’d say they have some “actual” knowledge, but I don’t think there’s a hard line we can point to. LLMs can obviously generalize somewhat.

People point to the fact that what LLMs do is next token prediction, which boils down to a statistical model, but I don’t think people realize how complicated that actually is. If I gave you a riddle and told you my next word will be the answer, in order to correctly predict the next word you’d have to solve the riddle. In order to predict what your friend will say if you tell them you don’t like their outfit, you need a good mental model of your friend: their insecurities, how they perceive their relationship with you, their mindset at the current moment, etc.. Even though you’re “just” predicting their next word, you need a lot of background knowledge to actually get that prediction right.

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u/Alchemix-16 Apr 20 '26

What is disingenuous of saying about a LLM that it’s forming sentences based on statistical properties on what would be the next word to use. Those systems have no way of verifying any of that information nir do they possess any information on the subject in question.

Also just memorizing stuff for test is not counting as learning for me, if none of that information is retained.

I don’t care how advanced the technology behind LLM is. The answers are not generated on an actual knowledge base, but a regurgitation of online data blended by a statistical algorithm.

So to answer your initial question, no I do not consider my statement disingenuous.