Anyone who majors in physics will have performed lots of experiments in the lab, including this one. The average person may believe what they read in a high school science textbook but their justification rests on the word of others and the general institution of education. Occasionally, we have seen situations where this institution is under attack [1]. Nevertheless, I would not consider something to be knowledge if you only read it in a book. Heck, even experiments can lead people astray [2] as later experiments may contradict earlier ones.
All of this is to say that it is very hard to know anything with a high degree of confidence. The confidence many people have is a false one. However, in the case of LLMs, there is no basis for any confidence whatsoever. The text is the claim and LLMs have no means of independently verifying that claim. All they can do is statistically evaluate the internal consistency of the text, and even that is fraught with difficulty. "A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes."
All of this is to say that it is very hard to know anything with a high degree of confidence. The confidence many people have is a false one. However, in the case of LLMs, there is no basis for any confidence whatsoever. The text is the claim and LLMs have no means of independently verifying that claim. All they can do is statistically evaluate the internal consistency of the text, and even that is fraught with difficulty. "A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes."
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_evolution_hearings
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_model