>The very best LLM can answer is the answer you can expect from an online forum like Reddit or a book/paper published more than a year ago.

The LLMs are vastly superior for any subject matter with even the slightest hint of danger or otherwise high stakes because while both LLMs and Reddit will whine at you and talk down to you the LLM will actually knock it off when told.

Like I'm asking you about sheetmetal thickness vs joist spacing for re-skinning a goddamn carport with roofing steel, read the room, this is not the time to whine about permits and snow loads and whatnot because the project is happening with or without your advice.

And it's not just mundane stuff. Some guy who's retrofitting new chinesium controls onto 50yo industrial equipment that had a prior generation of controls cobbled on 20yr ago doesn't need to get talked down at about stainless on stainless corrosion when he's asking a question about a solenoid or something. If the LLM talks down to him he can brush it aside. If he tries that on reddit they'll dig in their heels and fling poo.

Cutting out the "negative value" middle man of having to painstakingly make the case about the validity of your big picture goal before getting answers to simple questions is of substantial value. Stuff that people would've painstakingly researched themselves rather than ask Reddit or HN or Stack Overflow because dealing with those people is so onerous they now just punch into their LLM of choice and get the best of both worlds.