Quantifying and Training 'Taste' as LLMs Near Self-Improvement

Kangwook_Lee · x · 2026-08-13

As LLMs approach meaningful self-improvement, measuring and training for 'taste' becomes a critical bottleneck. The author argues that current proxies like citation counts only capture a byproduct of taste, similar to training a film critic using box office revenue.\n\nThe post synthesizes perspectives from notable figures: Ira Glass's 'taste gap' highlights that taste (the verifier) often outpaces execution (the generator); Chris Olah distinguishes 'research intimacy'—deep familiarity with raw domain knowledge—from taste, suggesting the former feeds the latter; Michael Nielsen divides researchers into problem-solvers and problem-creators, arguing that taste is fundamentally about knowing which questions to ask.

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