Current language models fail in all sorts of quantifiable ways, but I think that trying to discuss their merits away by reasoning about what it means to 'truly

Current language models fail in all sorts of quantifiable ways, but I think that trying to discuss their merits away by reasoning about what it means to 'truly understand' something, or to be 'truly intelligent' is a complete dead-end. It seems to me that it's based on the magical thought that there's something truly special and unique about us humans, as compared to other species or technology. Those discussions always seem more theological than science-driven to me. If you want to measure the difference between human performance and LLMs, there's a million experiments you can run. I'll gladly be convinced by data, and I'm open to the possibility that the data might point in either direction, or be inconclusive. But grand words without data are not convincing.