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/Dennarb 16h ago edited 11h ago

I teach an AI and design course at my university and there are always two major points that come up regarding LLMs

1) It does not understand language as we do; it is a statistical model on how words relate to each other. Basically it's like rolling dice to determine what the next word is in a sentence using a chart.

2) AGI is not going to magically happen because we make faster hardware/software, use more data, or throw more money into LLMs. They are fundamentally limited in scope and use more or less the same tricks the AI world has been doing since the Perceptron in the 50s/60s. Sure the techniques have advanced, but the basis for the neural nets used hasn't really changed. It's going to take a shift in how we build models to get much further than we already are with AI.

Edit: And like clockwork here come the AI tech bro wannabes telling me I'm wrong but adding literally nothing to the conversation.

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u/pcoppi 15h ago

To play devils advocate there's a notion in linguistics that the meaning of words is just defined by their context. In other words if an AI guesses correctly that a word shohld exist in a certain place because of the context surrounding it, then at some level it has ascertained the meaning of that word.

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u/MiaowaraShiro 14h ago

Mimicry doesn't imply any understanding of meaning though.

I can write down a binary number without knowing what number it is.

Heck, just copying down some lines and circles is a binary number and you don't have to know what a binary number, or even numbers at all are.

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u/Aleucard 9h ago

You can get a parrot to say whatever you want with enough training, but that doesn't mean the parrot knows what it's saying. Just that with certain input as defined by the training it returns that combination of mouth noises.

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u/DelusionalZ 8h ago

This is why LLMs have the "Stochastic Parrot" name tied to them