Durt, Christoph and Froese, Tom and Fuchs, Thomas (2023) Large Language Models and the Patterns of Human Language Use: An Alternative View of the Relation of AI to Understanding and Sentience. [Preprint]
This is the latest version of this item.
|
Text
Large Language Models and the Patterns of Human Language Use.pdf Download (316kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT are deep learning architectures that have been trained on immense amounts of text. Their ability to produce human-like text has led to claims that LLMs either possess or simulate some form of conscious experience and understanding. This paper argues that experience and understanding do play an important role, but that it is very different from what is commonly thought. LLMs model the statistical contours of vast amounts of human language use. We use phenomenological considerations of human language production to explain that human language use is intertwined with experience and understanding. Symbolic language does not simply correspond to internal or external 'meaning', but is meaningful because it scaffolds our interactions and mental life. In human language production, preconscious anticipatory processes interact with conscious experience. Human language use constitutes and makes use of given patterns, constantly rearranging them in a way that we liken to making a collage. LLMs do not need to replicate or simulate human mental life in order to produce text that appears meaningful to humans. Rather, they can infer statistical patterns from meaningful patterns in written language use, including clichés and biases. The impressive extent to which these can be computationally reassembled into text that makes sense to humans does not show that LLMs have developed understanding or sentience. Rather, it can reveal the surprising extent to which human language use gives rise to and is guided by patterns.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
Available Versions of this Item
-
Against AI Understanding and Sentience: Large Language Models, Meaning, and the Patterns of Human Language Use. (deposited 10 Apr 2023 13:42)
-
Against AI Understanding and Sentience: Large Language Models, Meaning, and the Patterns of Human Language Use. (deposited 12 Apr 2023 13:16)
- Large Language Models and the Patterns of Human Language Use: An Alternative View of the Relation of AI to Understanding and Sentience. (deposited 08 Nov 2023 18:37) [Currently Displayed]
-
Against AI Understanding and Sentience: Large Language Models, Meaning, and the Patterns of Human Language Use. (deposited 12 Apr 2023 13:16)
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}