Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

atleastoptimal

> LLMs can’t think

What is your definition of thinking?

View on HN

Well, for one thing, it has to have consciousness behind it.

And yes, I know that humans are conscious.

And yes, I know that LLMs are not.

You can throw out loads of BS philosophy to try to obfuscate these clear, obvious facts, but they both remain true.

Thinking and consciousness are not the same thing imo. At least in that something can show all the faculties of thought without necessarily being conscious. An LLM can still be useful and give you the useful results you want without being conscious.

Like lets say i gave a human and an LLM a tech spec and the LLM created a software product as good as the human, does it matter that there was consciousness behind the human thinking?

No, I agree; they're not the same thing. But that doesn't mean they aren't tightly interwoven.

And I don't see how usefulness comes into it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com