Absolutely needed: to get high efficiency for this beast … as it gets better, we’ll become too dependent.
“all of this growth is for a new technology that’s still finding its footing, and in many applications—education, medical advice, legal analysis—might be the wrong tool for the job,”
Yes, which has improved some tasks measurably. ~20% improvement on programming tasks, as a practical example. It has also improved tool use and agentic tasks, allowing the llm to plan ahead and adjust it’s initial approach based on later parts.
Having the llm talk through the tasks allows it to improve or fix bad decisions taken early based on new realizations on later stages. Sort of like when a human thinks through how to do something.