Noam Chomsky - GoKawiil

Peter Norvig rebuts Chomsky's critique of statistical language models

Linguist Noam Chomsky had argued that statistical machine learning approaches to language merely approximate data without producing scientific understanding, calling this a novel and flawed notion of success. In response, Peter Norvig wrote an essay examining Chomsky's claims point by point, questioning whether engineering success in language modeling is truly irrelevant to science and whether Chomsky's characterization of statistical models is accurate.

norvig.com · 2026-11-06

New book argues language arose through group cooperation, not solo invention

Anthropologists Chris Knight and Jerome Lewis trace the long, often taboo history of speculation about how human language began, from Plato to the 1866 Paris Linguistic Society ban on the topic to Noam Chomsky's dismissal of the question. Their new book, The Revolutionary Origins of Language, argues that speech emerged from collective social and cooperative behaviour rather than as an individual cognitive leap, with women's roles featuring prominently in their account.

nature.com · 2026-10-26