A child may not be able to count, because they don't yet understand the concept, but may be able to reason at a more basic level, yes. But GPT has ingested most of the books in the world and the entire internet. So if it hasn't learned to count, or what counting is by now, what is going to change? A child can learn the concept, GPT cannot. It doesn't understand concepts at all, it only seems like it does because the output is so close to what beings that do understand concepts generate themselves, and it's mimicking that.
It can't count because it doesn't know what counting is. Otherwise it would be able to count like a computer can. After ingesting all the literature in the world, why can't it count yet?
It can, just not very well. Often the issue is people have it count letters and words but those aren’t the abstractions or deals with. It would be like if I told you to pick up the ball primarily reflecting 450nm light and called you colorblind if you couldn’t do it.
GPT is built on a computer. It is not a computer itself. I am made of cells, but I am not able to perform mitosis.
It’s also very capable of offloading counting tasks, since computers are so good at that. Just suggest it format things in code and evaluate it.
Here’s an example of it counting. I’m pretty confident it’s never seen this exact problem before.
How many fruits are in this list? banana, hammer, wrench, watermelon, screwdriver, pineapple, peach
There are 4 fruits in the list you provided: banana, watermelon, pineapple, and peach. The other items are tools, not fruits.