What question would AI answer to demonstrate it thinks?

Question

There is a raging debate about LLMs and AIs in general that do not distinguish between probabilistic word selection and thought. Everyone has a different standard. My favorite (which favors not thinking) is "What are the last 10 digits of Pi?" which will give you 10 digits (typically). Another is "Describe all security vulnerabilities in the following code." I'm curious though, what are your questions? The one you would ask that, when answered accurately, would make you pause and think that maybe there was something more here than guessing the next word.

brucethemoose2 · Accepted Answer

There is nothing an LLM could say that would demonstrate thought to me. Not even close... At least with anything I can think of.
Even if you gave an super-LLM agency and a body, and it moved out to a little shack on a lake, got married, raised children, and started publishing sublime philosophy and fiction, I still wouldn't be convinced.
There's just too much human data available. Anything could be probabilistic word selection... Maybe the distinction is not really important anyway.

verdverm · Answer

I think a better metric than question answering will be question asking or self talk
Will it become curious or contemplate like a human?
When does it drive by itself, rather than requiring a prompt to do anything?

AnimalMuppet · Answer

Well, the obvious way to do it would be to ask a question for which there is zero meaningful comment/analysis/data available online, and see how well it can truly think for itself.The obvious problem is inventing a question like that. (You have to invent it. You can't find one online...)

bell-cot · Answer

Gut reaction: If all it does is sit passively and answer questions that are put to it, then it's not actually intelligent.

qd011 · Answer

I genuinely think that this whole argument is a waste of time.What matters is whether the outputs are useful and the outputs don't change based on whether you call it "thought", "AGI" or "probabilistic word selection".

What question would AI answer to demonstrate it thinks?

I think a better metric than question answering will be question asking or self talk
Will it become curious or contemplate like a human?
When does it drive by itself, rather than requiring a prompt to do anything?

Well, the obvious way to do it would be to ask a question for which there is zero meaningful comment/analysis/data available online, and see how well it can truly think for itself.
The obvious problem is inventing a question like that. (You have to invent it. You can't find one online...)

Gut reaction: If all it does is sit passively and answer questions that are put to it, then it's not actually intelligent.

I genuinely think that this whole argument is a waste of time.
What matters is whether the outputs are useful and the outputs don't change based on whether you call it "thought", "AGI" or "probabilistic word selection".

What question would AI answer to demonstrate it thinks?

I think a better metric than question answering will be question asking or self talkWill it become curious or contemplate like a human?When does it drive by itself, rather than requiring a prompt to do anything?

Well, the obvious way to do it would be to ask a question for which there is zero meaningful comment/analysis/data available online, and see how well it can truly think for itself.The obvious problem is inventing a question like that. (You have to invent it. You can't find one online...)

Gut reaction: If all it does is sit passively and answer questions that are put to it, then it's not actually intelligent.

I genuinely think that this whole argument is a waste of time.What matters is whether the outputs are useful and the outputs don't change based on whether you call it "thought", "AGI" or "probabilistic word selection".

I think a better metric than question answering will be question asking or self talk
Will it become curious or contemplate like a human?
When does it drive by itself, rather than requiring a prompt to do anything?

Well, the obvious way to do it would be to ask a question for which there is zero meaningful comment/analysis/data available online, and see how well it can truly think for itself.
The obvious problem is inventing a question like that. (You have to invent it. You can't find one online...)

I genuinely think that this whole argument is a waste of time.
What matters is whether the outputs are useful and the outputs don't change based on whether you call it "thought", "AGI" or "probabilistic word selection".