[steve1977]

> Predict the next word is a terrible summary of what these machines do though, they certainly do more than that

What would that be?

[grey-area]

They generate text based on quite a large context, including hidden prompts we don’t see and their weights are distorted heavily by training. So I think there’s a lot more than a simple probability of word x coming next. That makes ‘predict next word’ a reductive summary IMO.

I do not personally feel it resembles thinking or reasoning though and really object to that framing because it is misleading many people.

[karamanolev]

> their weights are distorted heavily by training

What does that even mean? Their weights are essentially created by training. There aren't some magic golden weights that are then distorted.