Still "Talking About Large Language Models": Some Clarifications

Murray Shanahan

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arXiv · 2412.10291

Still "Talking About Large Language Models": Some Clarifications

Murray Shanahan

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Abstract

My paper "Talking About Large Language Models" has more than once been interpreted as advocating a reductionist stance towards large language models. But the paper was not intended that way, and I do not endorse such positions. This short note situates the paper in the context of a larger philosophical project that is concerned with the (mis)use of words rather than metaphysics, in the spirit of Wittgenstein's later writing.

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Murray Shanahan. 2024-12-13. Still "Talking About Large Language Models": Some Clarifications. https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.10291

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