[textninja]

They absolutely can reason and plan; how do you suppose they predict the next token?

That they’re not autonomously solving complex tasks is a bit of a straw man though, and with a bit of creativity we can easily imagine them being combined with models and modalities that do provide executive function and autonomy.

[marvinkennis]

This is one of those things I’d love to be wrong on. I think your point on combining them with other models is interesting.

Do you think that Markov chains can reason and plan? Dijkstra’s algorithm? Curious where you draw the line

[textninja]

Well, yes, reasoning and planning abilities exist on a spectrum, so it isn’t so much a matter of where to draw the line as a question of degree. As for LLMs, I think their reasoning and planning is some of the most powerful and human-like we’ve seen so far, even if the hidden mechanisms and constraints are different (in some cases, more limited, but in others, vastly superior).

Our brains however are highly modular (a “committee of idiots”) so who’s to say a portion, and even a significant one, doesn’t operate on similar principles?

[Bluestein]

For thought: Can DNA reason and plan?

[textninja]

Can a collection of around 1.5 billion interconnected cells that predictably respond to signals in their environment using simple rules? How about 86 billion? 36 trillion?

These are ballpark counts of cells in crow’s brain, a human’s brain, and a human body. The question is, is it the cells themselves doing the reasoning and planning, or are they just the machinery this disembodied process happens to be running on? I’d argue intelligence is a distributed phenomenon that our DNA is as much a party to as our brains.

Certainly the question of whether humans use DNA to reproduce or DNA uses humans is a matter of perspective.