[ExI] Emily M. Bender — Language Models and Linguistics (video interview)

[Jason Resch]

On Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 9:29 PM Gordon Swobe <gordon.swobe at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> This message is getting too long, sorry.
>


I apologize for the length and I appreciate the time you spent already to
formulate your reply. I was hoping most of all you would get a chance to
see and respond to this:

Page 51 of this PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.12712.pdf

As this might be the most important and convincing page in the document for
the purposes of our discussion. To me this proves without a doubt they
GPT-4 has overcome the symbol grounding problem. That is to say, it has
convincingly bootstrapped the meaning of the words as they map to reality.

This is because *words alone* were sufficient for GPT-4 to construct a
mathematical model (a graph with edges and vertices) that is consistent
with the layout of rooms within the house, as they were described *purely
with words*. Is there any other way to interpret this?



>
> >  Likewise. I think even if we do not come to an agreement this is a
> useful discussion in that it helps each of us to clarify our thoughts and
> understanding of these topics.
>
>
> Yes, thanks and it's nice to know you. I've been down this rabbit hole
> before on ExI, something like 15-18 years ago. You weren't around in those
> days that I can remember.
>

Thank you! I feel similarly. I was not on this list at this time. I began
on the everything-list around 16 years ago and subscribed to this list much
later, and have mostly lurked.

Jason
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