How creative vs predictable AI answers
Day 56 of 149
👉 Full deep-dive with code examples
The Chef Analogy
Ordering at a restaurant:
- Temperature 0: "Exactly as the recipe says. No surprises."
- Temperature 1: "Chef's creative interpretation—might be amazing, might be weird!"
Temperature controls how "creative" or "random" AI responses are!
What Temperature Does
When AI generates text, it picks the next word from a list of possibilities.
Low temperature:
- Often picks "mat"
- Predictable, consistent
- Good for: facts, code, specific answers
High temperature:
- Might pick "floor" or even "moon"
- Creative, varied, surprising
- Good for: stories, brainstorming, poetry
How To Choose
- Need precise, repeatable answers? Use a lower temperature.
- Need variety and ideas? Use a higher temperature.
What Happens At Extremes
Temperature = 0:
- Usually the most consistent output (especially with greedy decoding)
- Very conservative, and often boring
Temperature = 1+:
- Wild and unpredictable
- Creative but might not make sense
A Simple Example
Prompt: "Tell me a joke about cats"
- Lower temperature: more consistent, similar jokes
- Medium temperature: some variety
- Higher temperature: more unusual jokes
In One Sentence
Temperature controls how creative versus predictable AI responses are—low for precise tasks, high for creative exploration.
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