The sampler is not the data: untangling system, process and output in LLMs
gerardsans · x · 2026-09-29
In a debate with @morallawwithin, gerardsans systematically rebuts the claim that 'a model is just a sampler, hence no intelligence.' His example: a model outputs General Relativity and you read intelligence from it; swap the data for cat pixels and the output changes to a cat while the sampler never changes. He argues the critic conflates traits of the system, the process and the output.
Related event: Debate Flares Over Whether LLMs Are Just Samplers Without Intelligence(2 posts)→
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