I agree. The two of us are talking past each other, and I wonder if it's because there's a certain strain of thought around LLMs that believes that epistemological questions and technology that we don't fully understand are somehow unique to computer science problems.
Questions about the nature of knowledge (epistemology and other philosophical/cognitive studies) in humans are still unsolved to this day, and frankly may never be fully understood. I'm not saying this makes LLM automatically similar to human intelligence, but there are plenty of behaviors, instincts, and knowledge across many kinds of objects that we don't fully understand the origin of. LLMs aren't qualitatively different in this way.
There are many technologies that we used that we didn't fully understand at the time, even iterating and improving on those designs without having a strong theory behind them. Only later did we develop the theoretical frameworks that explain how those things work. Much like we're now researching the underpinnings of how LLMs work to develop more robust theories around them.
I'm genuinely trying to engage in a conversation and understand where this person is coming from and what they think is so unique about this moment and this technology. I understand the technological feat and I think it's a huge step forward, but I don't understand the mysticism that has emerged around it.
Questions about the nature of knowledge (epistemology and other philosophical/cognitive studies) in humans are still unsolved to this day, and frankly may never be fully understood. I'm not saying this makes LLM automatically similar to human intelligence, but there are plenty of behaviors, instincts, and knowledge across many kinds of objects that we don't fully understand the origin of. LLMs aren't qualitatively different in this way.
There are many technologies that we used that we didn't fully understand at the time, even iterating and improving on those designs without having a strong theory behind them. Only later did we develop the theoretical frameworks that explain how those things work. Much like we're now researching the underpinnings of how LLMs work to develop more robust theories around them.
I'm genuinely trying to engage in a conversation and understand where this person is coming from and what they think is so unique about this moment and this technology. I understand the technological feat and I think it's a huge step forward, but I don't understand the mysticism that has emerged around it.