[dinvlad]

This is kind of a stretch of an argument though. We could say the same about physics and any other sciences - everything is an abstraction at some level, but if this abstraction is reproduced by multiple independent types of measurement and is falsifiable, that is what we call scientific. I don't think LLMs pass this test.

[Symmetry]

I certainly wouldn't say that a traditional LLM is conscious. Once an input falls off of a LLM's input buffer it ceases to have any effect on its output, the exact same way that a subliminal stimuli's effects are limited in a human brain. The size, in bytes, of a LLM's input buffer isn't all that far off from a human brain's input activations either. So strictly feed-forward neural networks aren't conscious in this sense but its easy to image that architectural changes might provide an analogue to what a humans' consciousness provides.