Comment by YeGoblynQueenne
7 hours ago
Why do I need a source? An LLM prompt does not "move to action", because an LLM does not act. People act, animals act, software doesn't act. Acting implies volition and volition implies cognition and if you think that LLMs have those things then you're the one who should provide a source for your claim.
How about an LLM connected to a robotic arm. What then?
As for cognition - can you prove that you possess it, to an external observer? Could you, confined to a box through which you can only communicate through textual messages, prove that you are thinking, and not just responding through a mechanistic process?
Do I really need to prove that humans have cognition? Or, more to the point, do you want to challenge that assumption?
> Why do I need a source?
Because your entire post is a personal, philosophic opinion on what words should mean, and how if someone disagrees with this personal opinion of 1/7,000,000,000 of people, then they are wrong. Every single one of these claims is unsupported and contradicted by reliable sources like a dictionary:
> An LLM prompt does not "move to action"
> an LLM does not act
> software doesn't act
> Acting implies volition
The only way such opinions could viably be considered "true" is if you convinced a majority of people to agree with you on the changes, which you decidedly have not.
Until you do, we can go by the existing definitions: "prompt" means "to move to action", "act" means "the doing of a thing" (note the absence of "volition" or "cognition" in the actual definition), and by all reasonable accounts, LLMs "do things".
I mean, just take a step back and dispassionately look at your ridiculous claim that nobody prompts LLMs (because you now claim only a human can be prompted, because only living creatures can do a thing). Do you really think you can gain consensus from folks on that claim?
There are many differences between LLMs and people, but this is not one of them, according to all reliable sources I've found so far. Feel free to share the reliable sources which led you to your personal conclusion here.