[jcrites]

Hmmm, I don't agree. They do seem to understand some things.

I asked ChatGPT the other day how fast an object would be traveling if "dropped" from the Earth with no orbital velocity, by the time it reached the sun. It brought out the appropriate equations and discussed how to apply them.

(I didn't actually double-check the answer, but the math looked right to me.)

It also seems to have a calculation or "analysis" function now, which gets activated when asking it specific mathematical questions like this. I've imagined it works by using the LLM to set up a formula, which is then evaluated in a classical way.

There are limits on what it can do, just like any human has similar limits. ChatGPT can answer more questions like this correctly than the average person could from off the street. That seems like understanding to me.