Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)A thought experiment in the National Library of Thailand—or why #ChatGPT (or any other language model) isn't actually understanding.
n0body@emilymbender In Edgar Rice Burrough's "Tarzan of the Apes" (1912) young Lord Greystoke teaches himself to read by recognizing patterns in the "bugs" on the pages of his father's library.
As a young child, I wondered how he could have related those patterns to the physical world without a Rosetta stone, e.g. pictures.
This is the same thought experiment. Turing answers this question by rejecting it. The real question is one of *indistinguishability*, and LLMs are only at the T2 (pen-pal) stage.
As a young child, I wondered how he could have related those patterns to the physical world without a Rosetta stone, e.g. pictures.
This is the same thought experiment. Turing answers this question by rejecting it. The real question is one of *indistinguishability*, and LLMs are only at the T2 (pen-pal) stage.
Michael Busch@n0body @emilymbender Even Burroughs in his imagination found it necessary to give Tarzan an extensive collection of picture books and primers to learn English from - and he only learns to read and write a bit; not to speak.
@michael_w_busch @emilymbender Yes you are right, didn't he also learn to read French? This was the source of Jane's confusion who thought he was illiterate. (edit: the premise of the next book! it's been many decades since I read it)