Embarrassing AI #59: Discovering AI temperature settings

Things built: 23 People watching: 19 Cashflow:-$72

Almost every time I do something with AI I learn something new.

The easy explanation is that I’m new to AI therefore everything is sparkly ponies all the way down.

But that feels a tad too trite.

I’m dumb but not an idiot.

Really, it’s like looking at a mixing table at a music studio. Hundreds of dials that are being tweaked confidently by the technician behind the deck, none of which seems to make sense. It’s voodoo.

Until you learn to be the damn technician.

When I asked the 🤖 for help with building a tweet bot, one of the things it told me, unprompted, was to set the temperature of the AI to 0.7.

I had never heard this before and I’ve been playing around with this shnit for months now.

I’ve learned to just ask it to explain what something means, like a 5 year old who doesn’t feel the need to pretend it knows how the world works.

Apparently, in AI circles, temp is a measure of creativity. There is a direct, and opposite correlation to predictability, meaning that when the AI temp is low, the answers are boring and predictable and when it is high they are interesting and possibly off the reservation. That’s the trade off.

What I did not know is that you can instruct the AI how predictable or creative to be simply by determining the temperature it’s working at.

That’s 🔥.

I’m working on it.

Tools I am using to fake being an expert.

1. Beehiiv (The Platform)

"I tried other platforms, but Beehiiv is the only one that makes growth feel like a game. It’s what runs this newsletter. The Deal: You get a free trial + 20% off (I get a commission to keep the lights on)."

2. Wispr Flow (The Time Saver)

"I hate typing. This tool turns my rambling voice notes into perfect text. It’s the only way I can write this much every day. The Deal: We both get a free month if you try it."

3. Emergent (The Coding Cheat)

"I am not a coder. Emergent is my 'vibe coding' partner that writes the messy parts for me. Essential if you want to build apps without a CS degree."

🧘‍♂ Last Word.

I’m feeling like Dave’s Hot Chicken.

Making daily progress,

P.S. Did I do something totally backwards today? Or do you have a better prompt for this? Hit reply and tell me. I’m here to learn just as much as you are. (I read every single email).