[famouswaffles]

>Where does this idea that ChatGPT and friends are general-purpose come from?

Maybe reality?

https://general-pattern-machines.github.io/

Large Language Models are as general purpose as they come especially for Machine Learning. They generalize to any kind of pattern, linguistic or not.

[swayvil]

Ya. They've used NN for recognizing faces, airplanes, trolls, songs... all kinds of stuff.

Gleaning useful order from vast dizzying complexity is the name of the game. Or so is my rudimentary understanding.