I thought this comment about what science is was also insightful because it explains simply Chomsky's problem with pseudoscientific approaches: I believe your

I thought this comment about what science is was also insightful because it explains simply Chomsky's problem with pseudoscientific approaches: I believe your disagreements with Chomsky on politics does creep in to the discussion of AI and linguistics. Chomsky has never denied the success of ChaptGPT or google search or any of those things. The article of Norvig states this. But the core disagreement between Chomsky and his followers (such as myself) against those who prefer a statistical view of intelligence is that LLM or in fact the entire field of AI as it is right now has no real scientific basis compared to what exists in other scientific fields like physics or biology or chemistry. We don’t have a first principles of intelligence, hell we don’t even have bad theories of intelligence. Algorithms that form the basis of Google search or the statistical nature of LLM does not explain what is actually working in the real world. Just like the brain which doesn’t perform advanced calculus to calculate trajectories when it raises the hand of a body to grab a ball in the air. Look back at the Norvig article until, we have made spectacular technological progress, basically engineering and that’s great as a tool to help society. Just don’t confuse that with actual science that is supposed to explain what is actually out there. That’s the true nature of Galileo’s telescope.