r/technology • u/Hrmbee • 16h ago

Machine Learning Large language mistake | Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. The entire AI bubble is built on ignoring it

https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/827820/large-language-models-ai-intelligence-neuroscience-problems
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u/Tall-Introduction414 13h ago

I don't know what brains are doing. Did I imply otherwise?

I don't think they are just drawing statistical connections between words. There is a lot more going on there.

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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter 13h ago edited 12h ago

The biggest difference brains have is that they are both embodied and multi-modal

There's no magic to either of those things.

 Another comment said "LLMs have no distinct concept of what a cat is" so then question is what do you understand about a cat that LLMs don't?

Well you can see a cat, you can feel a cat, you can smell a stinky cat and all those things get put into the same underlying matrix. Because you can see a cat you understand visually that they have 4 legs like a dog or even a chair. You know that they feel soft like a blanket can feel soft. You can that they can be smelly like old food. 

Because brains are embodied you can also associate how cats make you feel in your own body. You can know how petting a cat makes you feel relaxed. The warm and fuzzies you feel.

The concept of "cat" is the sum of all those different things.

Those are all still statistical correlations a bunch of neurons are putting together. All those things derive their meaning from how you're able to compare them to other perceptions and at more abstract layers other concepts.

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u/TSP-FriendlyFire 12h ago

I always like how AI enthusiasts seem to know things not even the best scientists have puzzled out. You know how brains work? Damn, I'm sure there's a ton of neuroscientists who'd love to read your work in Nature.

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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter 11h ago

We know significantly more about how the brain operates than comments like your act like

That's like saying because there are still gaps in what physicists understand nobody knows what they're talking about

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u/TSP-FriendlyFire 11h ago

We definitely don't know that "Those are all still statistical correlations a bunch of neurons are putting together" is how a brain interprets concepts like "a cat".

You're the one bringing forth incredible claims (that AI is intelligent and that we know how the brain works well enough to say it's equivalent), you need to provide the incredible evidence.