> On the latter point, that is, you can have the same conversation tomorrow. The LLM has not "learned" anything, it has not adapted in any way.
They do learn, OpenAI has a memory feature. I just opened up a chat, asked "What do you know about me?" and got a long list of things specific to me that it certainly did not infer from the chat so far. It's a bit unsettling really, someone at OpenAI would probably have little difficulty matching my OpenAI account to my HN one, it looks like they have quite a few bits of information to work with. Privacy is a hard thing to maintain.
I really don't see the "LLMs don't learn" position as a defensible one long term given the appalling limitations of human memory and the strengths computers have at it. Given the improvements in RAG and large context windows it actually seems pretty likely that LLMs will be quite a lot better at humans when it comes to memory, they have SSDs. We just don't build LLMs with memory right yet for whatever reason.
that’s not learning…we have a fundamentally different understanding of what cognition, intelligence, and learning are
adding text to storage and searching over it is not memory. “knowing” those things about you is not learning. and guess what, context still fills up. trying putting that LLM again in the real world, facing real human challenges, with all the real sensory input around you. it’s nonsensical
and it’s not about “limits” of humans. machines can do math and many things better, that’s been apparent for decades. yes, they can “remember” 8k video streams much better than us. that’s not “memory” in the human sense and machines don’t “learn” from it in the human sense
(your IP address is much easier to link your accounts than your text)
> Why not? If humans store data in their brains, isn't that learning?
No. We’re back to my earlier point of you and I have fundamentally different understanding of cognition, intelligence, and learning. And genuinely not trying to be condescending, but I suspect you don’t have a good grounding in the technology we’re discussing
> No. We’re back to my earlier point of you and I have fundamentally different understanding of cognition, intelligence, and learning. And genuinely not trying to be condescending, but I suspect you don’t have a good grounding in the technology we’re discussing
Yeah, that definitely came off as condescending. Especially on HN, where pretty much everyone here has a grounding in the technology we're discussing. In any case, your arguments have not dealt with technology at all, but on hand-wavy distinctions like "temporality."
Anyway, to the larger point: I agree that "you and I have fundamentally different understanding of cognition, intelligence, and learning" but your inability to explain your own understanding of these terms and why they are relevant is why your arguments are unpersuasive.
They do learn, OpenAI has a memory feature. I just opened up a chat, asked "What do you know about me?" and got a long list of things specific to me that it certainly did not infer from the chat so far. It's a bit unsettling really, someone at OpenAI would probably have little difficulty matching my OpenAI account to my HN one, it looks like they have quite a few bits of information to work with. Privacy is a hard thing to maintain.
I really don't see the "LLMs don't learn" position as a defensible one long term given the appalling limitations of human memory and the strengths computers have at it. Given the improvements in RAG and large context windows it actually seems pretty likely that LLMs will be quite a lot better at humans when it comes to memory, they have SSDs. We just don't build LLMs with memory right yet for whatever reason.