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JoshCole | 9 months ago
> An LLM only learns through input text.
This is false. There already exist LLM which understand more than just text. Relevant search term: multi-modality.
> It doesn't have a first-person 3D experience of the world.
Again false. It is trivial to create such an experience with multi-modality. Just set up an input device which streams that.
> So it can't execute physical experiments, or even understand them.
Here you get confused again. It doesn't follow, based on perceptual modality, that someone can't do or understand experiments. Hellen Keller can be both blind, but also do an experiment.
Beyond just being confused, you also make another false claim. Current LLMs already have the capacity to run experiments and do so. Search terms: tool usage, ReAct loop, AI agents.
> It can understand the texts about it, but it can't visualize it, because it doesn't have a visual experience.
Again, false!
Multi-modal LLMs currently possess the ability to generate images.
> And ultimately our physical world is governed by physical processes. So at the fundamentals of physical reality, the LLMs lack understanding. And therefore will stay dependent on humans educating and correcting it.
Again false. The same sort of reasoning would claim that Hellen Keller couldn't read a book, but braille exists. The ability to acquire information outside an umwelt is a capability that intelligence enables.
gitaarik|9 months ago
My example about the visualization was just an example to prove a point. What I ultimately mean is the whole complete human experience. And besides, if you give it eyes, what data are you gonna train it on? Most videos on the internet are filmed with one lens, which doesn't give you a 3D visual. So you would have to train it like a baby growing up, trial on error. And then again we're talking only about the visual.
Hellen Keller wasn't born blind, so she did have a chance to develop her visual brain functions. Most people can visualize things with their eyes closed.
JoshCole|9 months ago
I do understand the points you are attempting to make. The reason you're failing to prove your point is not because I am failing to understand the thrust of what you were trying to argue.
Imagine you were talking to someone who was a rocket scientist, and you were talking to them about engines and you had an understanding of engines that was predicated on your experience with cars. You start making claims about the nature of engines and they disagree with you they argue with you and they point out all these ways that you're wrong. Is this person going to be doing this because they're not able to understand your points? Or is it more likely that their experience with engines that are different than the engines that you're used to give them a different perspective that forced them to think of the world in a different way than you do?