Author of 'LLMs feel pain' study tells Gary Marcus: we never claimed that
GaryMarcus · x · 2026-09-20
Gary Marcus reports that the author of the study many AI influencers cite as evidence LLMs feel pain says plainly: "We don't claim they feel pain."
- Author camhberg: the direction was not built to argue for pain; the work is a series of replicable empirical findings in model internals and behavior, not an argument
- The behavioral results are highly nonobvious and interesting on their own, even without implying the model feels anything
- Marcus credits the author for understanding the study's limits and criticizes influencers for reading in what isn't there
Related event: Paper Authors Deny Ever Claiming LLMs Can Feel Pain(2 posts)→
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