Jeremy Howard: LLMs "cosplay understanding," like the man in Searle's Chinese room
Machine Learning Street Talk · youtube · 2026-11-11
Jeremy Howard, co-founder of fast.ai and Answer.AI, weighs in on the endless debate over whether LLMs "really" understand. His answer: both sides are right — LLMs cosplay understanding, much like the man in Searle's Chinese room, and for a great many tasks the difference doesn't matter, until you reach the point where the pretence stops working. Full conversation on Machine Learning Street Talk.
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