We also cap how long we let reasoning LLMs think for. OpenAI researchers have already discussed models they let reason for hours that could solve much harder problems.
But regardless, I feel like this conversation is useless. You are clearly motivated to not think LLMs are reasoning by 1) only looking at crappy old models as some sort of evidence about new models, which is nonsense, and 2) coming up with nonsensical arguments about how they could still be memorising answers that make no sense. Even if they memorised sequences, they still have to put that together to get the exact right answers to 8-digit multiplication in >90% of cases. That requires the application of algorithms, aka reasoning.
But regardless, I feel like this conversation is useless. You are clearly motivated to not think LLMs are reasoning by 1) only looking at crappy old models as some sort of evidence about new models, which is nonsense, and 2) coming up with nonsensical arguments about how they could still be memorising answers that make no sense. Even if they memorised sequences, they still have to put that together to get the exact right answers to 8-digit multiplication in >90% of cases. That requires the application of algorithms, aka reasoning.