‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

Don't be fooled–LLMs don't reason

75 points · 159 comments · leopoldj

  1. coreyh14444 · · focus · HN ↗
    Jet planes don't fly by flapping their wings...
    1. infamia · · focus · HN ↗
      And a magician making a coin "disappear" doesn't mean that magic is real. I see no way we can call it thinking without a goal (other than computing the next token).
      1. conscion · · focus · HN ↗
        > other than computing the next token

        I believe there's a confusion in this thread between what an LLM _does_ and what an LLM _is_. What is does is output a next token. What it is, is a universal function approximator ([1], i.e. a neural net).

        With back probation in the neural net, there could be a full state machine being approximated inside the weight. And a state machine is the exact step-wise reasoning the author claims it needs.

        [1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Universal_approximation_theorem" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Universal_approximation_theore...

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.