Claiming "LLMs can't think" is unscientific without rigorous argument, argues Plinz
aran_nayebi · x · 2026-09-25
Plinz argues that the claim "LLMs cannot think" is unscientific unless supported by a formally rigorous definition of thinking and proof that the causal structure behind LLM outputs fundamentally differs from human minds. Since LLMs reproduce outputs requiring scene understanding, translation, math proofs and theory of mind, showing they reach these results in fundamentally different ways would be difficult — and surprising, given cognitive neuroscience's own incomplete understanding of thought.
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