Are Large Language Models Intelligent? Are Humans?

Abstract

Claims that large language models lack intelligence are abundant in current AI discourse. To the extent that the claims are supported by arguments, these usually amount to claims that the models (a) lack common sense, (b) know only facts they have been trained with, (c) are merely matrix multiplications, (d) only predict the next word in a chain, (e) lack a world model, (f) have no grounding of symbols, (g) lack creativity, or (h) lack consciousness. Here, each of these arguments is applied, with minor modifications, to demonstrate that humans also lack intelligence. This should make us suspicious of the validity of these arguments.

Keywords

• artificial intelligence
• large language models
• symbol grounding
• consciousness