Too true. I often point out to others that a transformer like gpt-4 operates wholly on numbers- it knows nothing of meaning in the real world- nothing at all
back
1 comments
> I often point out to others that a transformer like gpt-4 operates wholly on numbers- it knows nothing of meaning in the real world- nothing at all
This is like saying a brain operates wholly on electrochemical states and knowns nothing about meaning in the real world, though; the mechanistic description is accurate, the cognitive conclusion attached to it is, at best, based on unsupported conjecture about the relation of mechanism to understanding.
All the magic in the universe will not allow you to find anything about a human from looking solely at the neural structure of its brain, however sophisticated. The brain is a representation (genome) of lived experience (phenome). The transformer has only ever experienced alphanumeric data input. Second hand experience.