Sure, let's stick to counting symbols. When I need to count something, there's a decent chance I'll get lost if I count beyond 10, and beyond 20 I'll get lost f

Sure, let's stick to counting symbols. When I need to count something, there's a decent chance I'll get lost if I count beyond 10, and beyond 20 I'll get lost for sure. Even below 10, when I count it's one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine items. But when I lie I do it instantaneously, without altering the pace of the conversation. I can come up with a believable lie within the brief period between someone saying something to me, and the moment I'm expected to respond. No way I'd be able to count 10 items that fast. Pirahã language doesn't even have numerals - that's an extreme case, but there quite a few languages where people stop counting beyond certain small number and just say "a lot". Same people though don't have issues lying to one another. Let that sink in for a while - fully grown-ass adults, fully capable of functioning in their society, not capable of counting one-two-three because the concept is beyond them. What I'm trying to say is that all of those "requires theory of mind" statements are probably true but completely irrelevant because humans (and LLMs) have "hardware acceleration" of whatever it takes to lie, meanwhile counting is an abstract idea that requires to use the brain in a way it didn't evolve to be used. Similarly, LLMs cannot count if they aren't connected to a math engine - not because they're stupid, but because counting is really difficult.