Debate: labs pay PhDs up to $1000/h to handwrite data — specialized domains won't stop LLMs
teortaxesTex · x · 2026-10-31
teortaxesTex fires back at "LLMs are hitting the wall" skeptics who claim companies won't hand over specialized knowledge (Shimadzu instrument know-how, HPLC troubleshooting intuition). He notes data acquisition is an established industry: labs pay PhDs multiples of normal rates to write unique datasets distilling their research problems, and data companies pay up to $1000/h for measurement-tool specialists to handwrite examples and correct model outputs. The thread captures a recurring clash over whether tacit expertise in scientific domains is actually a barrier for LLMs.
Related event: LLMs Entering Specialist Domains: The Bottleneck Is Data, Not Capability(2 posts)→
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