[JohnFen]

"Cognition" means understanding and knowing. As problematic as "intelligence" is when describing these systems, I think "cognition" is even worse. "Intelligence" is vague and "cognition" is specific, but "cognition" is also incorrect.

[laminatedsmore]

The googled definition says "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.", which I think fits ok.

Do you have a word that you prefer?

[JohnFen]

Right. That's the definition I think doesn't fit. GPTs do not "understand", and certainly do not "experience" or have senses.

> Do you have a word that you prefer?

Nope. That's why I use "intelligence" despite the problems with it. "Intelligence" may be a blank slate on which you can write whatever meaning you wish, but at least it can stretch to mean something accurate.

[laminatedsmore]

I'd say that knowledge (stored as weights) is acquired through experience (starting from a mostly blank start, weights are formed through exposure to training data). For me that's a useful mental model which helps me think about what a LLM is and isn't.

'Understanding' has an ambiguous meaning, while thought and senses are certainly not applicable.

But it's a semantic discussion about a novel and not well understood topic so :shrug: :)

[JohnFen]

> But it's a semantic discussion about a novel and not well understood topic

I agree entirely.