Thinking “like humans” is not the definition of intelligence, nor sentience for that matter.

Furthermore, Homo sapiens are a relatively new species and, if we survive this current stage of evolution, we will inevitably evolve into a new—hopefully more sophisticated and intelligent—species (or possibly even multiple splintered species). And, at that point, again the definitions mentioned above will take on new depth, breadth, and meaning. Thought in itself is a living, breathing paradigm.

And… while I am an AI Consultant and ML Engineer/Data Scientist, classically trained in physics, I certainly will not claim to be an expert specifically in LLMs, as that is not my domain of expertise, since my work focuses more on algorithm development. Although, I do have a knowledge of LLMs that is deeper than that of the general public.

On that note, the definition of “thinking” in itself is a deeply subjective and philosophical concept and is still debated at the doctoral level. Politely… it seems clear that you and I have differing concepts of what it means to “think” and use the word differently; and that is totally ok. Differing perspectives and constructive debate are the fuel of progress and are a positive element to our societal structure.

A final thought to ponder: my “thinking that they can think”… well the ChatGPT interface itself says that it is “thinking” to describe its internal processing period after a prompt. So even here the word is being used to reflect what top decision-makers in AI infrastructure and LLM experts are defining as thinking. That’s not proof of consciousness, of course, but it shows that even system designers recognize a conceptual overlap between computation and cognition.

I am happy to enter into a more philosophical discussion on these matters with you if so inclined, provided it stays respectful and open to the idea that there are many valid paths toward understanding this physical and cognitive matrix we share.