alt Hacker NewsConsider that you might have become polarized yourself. I often encounter good arguments against current AI systems emulating all essential aspects of human thinking. For example, the fact that they can't learn from few examples, that they can't perform simple mathematical operations without access to external help (via tool calling) or that they have to expend so much more energy to do their magic (and yes, to me they are a bit magical), which makes some wonder if what these models do is a form of refined brute-force search, rather than ideating.
Personally, I'm ok with reusing the word "thinking", but there are dogmatic stances on both sides. For example, lots of people decreeing that biology in the end can't but reduce to maths, since "what else could it be". The truth is we don't actually know if it is possible, for any conceivable computational system, to emulate all essential aspects of human thought. There are good arguments for this (in)possibility, like those presented by Roger Penrose in "the Emperor's new Mind" and "Shadows of the Mind".
For example, the fact that they can't learn from few examples
For one thing, yes, they can, obviously [1] -- when's the last time you checked? -- and for another, there are plenty of humans who seemingly cannot.
The only real difference is that with an LLM, when the context is lost, so is the learning. That will obviously need to be addressed at some point.
that they can't perform simple mathematical operations without access to external help (via tool calling)
But yet you are fine with humans requiring a calculator to perform similar tasks? Many humans are worse at basic arithmetic than an unaided transformer network. And, tellingly, we make the same kinds of errors.
or that they have to expend so much more energy to do their magic (and yes, to me they are a bit magical), which makes some wonder if what these models do is a form of refined brute-force search, rather than ideating.
Well, of course, all they are doing is searching and curve-fitting. To me, the magical thing is that they have shown us, more or less undeniably (Penrose notwithstanding), that that is all we do. Questions that have been asked for thousands of years have now been answered: there's nothing special about the human brain, except for the ability to form, consolidate, consult, and revise long-term memories.
1: E.g., https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.14165 from 2020