[lanstin]

The (or a) current neuroscience models of the brain are that its main job is to predict how the body should be responding in the near future. Obviously a lot more complex network nodes than an LLM, but prediction is clearly tied up with thought in some way.

I don’t find LLMs to be very good independent thinkers, but I wouldn’t over sell our own mentation either - it clearly arises from a large number of simpler entities.

The more significant difference is that the LLM is stuck with language which is clearly an emergent and secondary capability of our own thinking. We can formulate words to explain things, but we also can look at two volumes and feel what it means that one is larger than the other. Raise a toddler and you can see the progression from not understanding, repeated experiments, muscle memory and finally to conscious point for reasoning.

[JohnBooty]

    I don’t find LLMs to be very good independent 
    thinkers, but I wouldn’t over sell our own mentation 
    either - it clearly arises from a large number of 
    simpler entities.

Yeah. I don't see them ever hitting the heights of human creativity in terms of coming up with entirely new ideas, schools of thought, etc. That really might be a fundamental limitation of being trained on existing thought. Also, a lot of human experience involves (1) things we don't have words for (2) things we've never put into words.

    clearly an emergent and secondary capability of 
    our own thinking.

Yes. And it's part of our thinking. More than a capability . Thought influences speech, but speech also influences thought.

That's why I think it's remarkable that we've managed to (choosing my words very, very carefully here) create a statistical model that does a remarkably decent job at emulating the behavior of a fragment of that process.

[lanstin]

It is remarkable. A shame that unregulated business models and giant pools of capital seeking very high returns seem to be distorting (hype cycle, excessive spending that seems untethered to realistic plans, and uncritical roll out prior to compelling proof of utility) the rollout of the remarkable new technology.

I would speculate when we do eventually develop independent synthetic sentient beings, LLM technology will be a part of the package. Perhaps also growing up with a sibling that tries to trick one.

Maybe someone needs to write the singularity novel but with Cain and Abel, not just a unified super intelligence but siblings full of some good will and a good bit of clear seeing and some fun (?) trickery.