What even is a 'fact generator'? And why do you think an LLM is meant to function as one?
If you ask Wolfram Alpha - something which I think is actually meant to be a fact generator - "Which is the heaviest Pokemon?" it will happily tell you that it is Celesteela, and it weighs 2204.4lbs.
Is that a 'fact'?
It certainly 'true', for some definition of the word true. The game Pokemon exists, and in it Pokemon have a weight. Of all the official Pokemon, that one is the heaviest. Wolfram Alpha has given you an accurate answer to your question.
But it's also completely made up. There's no such thing as a Pokemon, and they do not actually have weights.
So sure, transformer models can't be relied upon to generate facts. But so what? There's a lot more to the world than mere facts.
If you ask Wolfram Alpha - something which I think is actually meant to be a fact generator - "Which is the heaviest Pokemon?" it will happily tell you that it is Celesteela, and it weighs 2204.4lbs.
Is that a 'fact'?
It certainly 'true', for some definition of the word true. The game Pokemon exists, and in it Pokemon have a weight. Of all the official Pokemon, that one is the heaviest. Wolfram Alpha has given you an accurate answer to your question.
But it's also completely made up. There's no such thing as a Pokemon, and they do not actually have weights.
So sure, transformer models can't be relied upon to generate facts. But so what? There's a lot more to the world than mere facts.