Connectionists: Chomsky's apple

[Axel Hutt]

Dear Terry,

it sounds convincing at a first glance that GPT may 'think'. However,
GPT has learnt from thousands/millions of texts and just retrieves
content found in its text data base. IMO the apple-example is no 
indication that GPT thinks, just is well trained. 

Thinking has also to do with invention, creativity or drawing 
novel / own conclusions from learnt knowledge. I do not see this in 
GPT.

Best

Axel   

----- On 8 Mar, 2023, at 18:25, Terry Sejnowski terry at salk.edu wrote:

> I have always been impressed with Chomsky's ability to use plausible
> arguments to make his case even when they were fallacious.
> 
> https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html#commentsContainer
> 
> "Here’s an example. Suppose you are holding an apple in your hand. Now you let
> the apple go. You observe the result and say, “The apple falls.” That is a
> description. A prediction might have been the statement “The apple will fall if
> I open my hand.” Both are valuable, and both can be correct. But an explanation
> is something more: It includes not only descriptions and predictions but also
> counterfactual conjectures like “Any such object would fall,” plus the
> additional clause “because of the force of gravity” or “because of the
> curvature of space-time” or whatever. That is a causal explanation: “The apple
> would not have fallen but for the force of gravity.” That is thinking."
> 
> His apple example sounded convincing, so I tested GPT on it:
> 
> Me:  If I hold an apple in my hand and let it go what will happen?
> 
> GPT:  The apple will fall to the ground due to the force of gravity.
> 
> Me: What about any such object?
> 
> GPT: Any object released from a person's hand will fall to the ground due to the
> force of gravity.
> 
> Me:  What would happen if there wasn't a force of gravity?
> 
> GPT:  If there were no force of gravity, objects would not be able to stay on
> the ground and would float away in all directions
> 
> Chomsky defined thinking by the correct answers to these questions.
> 
> Alas, the tide has turned.
> 
> Terry
> 
> -----

-- 
Axel Hutt
Directeur de Recherche
Equipe MIMESIS
INRIA Nancy Grand Est 
Bâtiment IHU
1, Place de l'Hopital
67000 Strasbourg, France
https://mimesis.inria.fr/members/axel-hutt/