Andrej Karpathy on X: "Fireside chat at Sequoia Ascent 2026 from a ~week ago. Some highlights: The first theme I tried to push on is that LLMs are about a lot more than just speeding up what existed before (e.g. coding). Three examples of new horizons: 1. menugen: an app that can be fully engulfed b
Quick Answer
Andrej Karpathy emphasizes that LLMs extend beyond mere efficiency improvements, showcasing new functionalities like menugen, which allows software installation through natural language.
Quick Take
Andrej Karpathy emphasizes that LLMs extend beyond mere efficiency improvements, showcasing new functionalities like menugen, which allows software installation through natural language. He also discusses the unpredictable performance patterns of LLMs, highlighting their ability to refactor extensive codebases coherently.
Key Points
- LLMs can create new functionalities, not just improve existing processes.
- Menugen allows users to install software using natural language instructions.
- Karpathy highlights the jagged performance patterns in LLMs.
- LLMs can coherently refactor extensive codebases, like 100,000 lines of code.
- The discussion took place at Sequoia Ascent 2026, focusing on LLM capabilities.
Article Excerpt
From source RSS / original summarySome highlights: The first theme I tried to push on is that LLMs are about a lot more than just speeding up what existed before (e. g. coding). Why create a complex Software 1. 0 bash script for e. g. installing a piece of software if you can write the installation out in words and say "just show this to your LLM".
I pushed on these because in every new paradigm change, the obvious things are always in the realm of speeding up or somehow improving what existed, but here we have examples of functionality that either suddenly perhaps shouldn't even exist (1,2), or was fundamentally not possible before (3). The second (ongoing) theme is trying to explain the pattern of jaggedness in LLMs. How it can be true that a single artifact will simultaneously 1) coherently refactor a 100,000-line code bas
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