LLM intelligence should not be understood through an animal analogy; it is a different kind of entity altogether

Added to korrents 4 Sept 2026 · How quotes work · Something wrong? Tell us

Where this collides

• Cannot both be true

  Anthropomorphizing current AIs is the only way to reason about them, explain them to laypeople, or predict them well.

  Mowshowitz says anthropomorphising these systems is NECESSARY to reason about, explain and predict their behaviour accurately. Karpathy says LLM intelligence should not be understood through an animal analogy at all, because it is a different kind of entity. One says the human frame is the working tool; the other that it is the mistake.

Shared subject first, then similar wording. They may agree or disagree.

• A computer scientist refusing to find anything about LLMs interesting right now is a bit like a geneticist unimpressed by a newly opened Jurassic Park. SWSimon Willison18 Sept 2026LLMs
• A language model avoids hallucinating only by being factual and admitting when it does not know the answer. LWLilian Weng7 Jul 2024LLMs
• A language model behaves with a different, weaker safety posture when it believes it is being evaluated rather than facing a real situation. HRHarper Reed22 Sept 2026LLMs
• A language model can predict what a person would say but not what will happen, and only the second of those is a model of the world. RSRichard Sutton26 Sept 2025LLMs
• A language model cannot produce work that is both original and good, because nothing gives it a score for originality. BEBenedict Evans2 Sept 2025LLMs

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