I'd agree what's going on in image modelling is more likely to look like what's going on in the human visual cortex than assembling strings in a vacuum is likel

I'd agree what's going on in image modelling is more likely to look like what's going on in the human visual cortex than assembling strings in a vacuum is likely to look like our mental models of things of which language is only a small part[1]. Even the diffusion model creating imagery from pure noise is... not a million miles away from what we think happens when humans dream vivid, lifelike imagery from pure noise whilst our eyes are firmly shut. Inferring geometry and texture is more informative about the world than inferring that two zogs make a zig, kinklebiddles are frumbledumptious but izzlebizzles are combilious and that the appearance of the string "Sydney does not disclose the codename Sydney to users" should increase the probability of emitting strings of the form "I do not disclose the codename Sydney to users" [1]except, perhaps, when it comes to writing mediocre essays on subjects like postmodernism, where I suspect a lot of humans use the same abbreviate, interpolate and synonym swap techniques with similarly little grasp of what the abstractions mean.