The Great Chatbot Debate – March 25th

Watch the program live on YouTube here! Chatbots based on large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, answer sophisticated questions, pass professional exams, analyze texts, generate everything from poems to computer programs, and more. But is there genuine understanding behind what LLMs can do? Do they really understand our world? Or, are they a triumph of mathematics and masses of data and calculations simulating true understanding? Join CHM, in partnership with IEEE Spectrum, for a fundamental debate on the nature of today’s AI: Do LLMs demonstrate genuine understanding, the “sparks” of true intelligence, or are they “stochastic parrots,” lacking understanding and meaning? IEEE Spectrum Senior Editor Eliza Strickland will moderate a debate between University of Washington computational linguist Emily M. Bender—who, with her coauthors, established the term “stochastic parrot" in a major 2021 paper and is coauthor of the forthcoming book The AI Con—and OpenAI's Sébastien Bubeck, fo ... Read full article.