Most people don't create knowledge "of the grand sort" but that's moving the goal posts; they do create knowledge "of the mundane sort" constantly. LLMs with a

Most people don't create knowledge "of the grand sort" but that's moving the goal posts; they do create knowledge "of the mundane sort" constantly. LLMs with a suitable harness can simulate this (poorly) by parroting what humans do when they are flustered (mumbling to themselves things like "What was I going to the store for? I made a list. Where did I put the list? Ah, here it is. Now where did I leave my keys?") and it even sort of appears to work, at least in highly structured environments. But it only appears to work as long as things stay within the expected statistical distribution. If I'm driving my usual route to work, waiting to turn left, and the three cars in front of me each start their turn, glow pink, and turn into circus animals with their occupants perched precariously on top I'm going to have a very different reaction than any self driving car or LLM.