As others have mentioned, turing machines can be achieved by only one instruction set. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer https://en

As others have mentioned, turing machines can be achieved by only one instruction set. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer Most popular being subleq (subract if less than or equal to zero). Subleq can be implemented with a transformer. See https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.13196.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.13196.pdf (Looped Transformers as Programmable Computers). The important distinction is that transformers need to be looped. Just like ChatGPT calls the model over and over again until stop token or limit is reached. And we know ChatGPT does better if we let it think step by step and blabber more (chain of thought prompting). In every token it generates, it gets an opportunity to branch.