Shevlin's 2019 essay revisited: Xu Zhimo, fan fiction, and the Winograd Schema Challenge

dioscuri · x · 2026-10-06

A follow-up linking Shevlin's full 2019 essay: using the example of an Uber driver predicting Chinese tourists photographing the Xu Zhimo plaque at King's College, it argues humans rely on folk psychology to model others' minds, then moves from Chinese poetry and Harry Potter fan fiction to the Winograd Schema Challenge — a view the author now grades B+, admitting he was wrong to deny LLMs could develop genuine understanding.

Related event: Philosopher Revisits 2019 AI Predictions: Right on GPT-2, Wrong on LLM Understanding(2 posts)→

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