Melanie Mitchell: language models span n-grams to GPT-2, agentic systems are another matter
MelMitchell1 · x · 2026-09-27
Melanie Mitchell elaborates in a long reply to Boaz Barak: a 'language model' is a system trained to capture the statistics of language, a category long predating LLMs — n-gram models, Elman nets, and GPT-2 all qualify. She reiterates she won't judge the 'stochastic parrots' metaphor itself; her core point is the original paper addressed 2021-era LLMs, whereas today's complex agentic systems are a different subject.
Related event: Melanie Mitchell Sparks Debate: Today's Systems Are Not LLMs(31 posts)→
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