On the Computation of Meaning, Language Models and Incomprehensible
Horrors
- Michael Timothy Bennett
Michael Timothy Bennett
Australian National University, Australian National University, Australian National University
Corresponding Author:[email protected]
Author ProfileAbstract
We bring together foundational theories of meaning and a mathematical
formalism of artificial general intelligence to provide a mechanistic
explanation of meaning, communication and symbol emergence. We establish
circumstances under which a machine might mean what we think it means by
what it says, or comprehend what we mean by what we say. We conclude
that a language model such as ChatGPT does not comprehend or engage in
meaningful communication with humans, though it may exhibit complex
behaviours such as theory of mind.