The NYU Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness announces a debate:

DO LANGUAGE MODELS NEED SENSORY GROUNDING FOR MEANING AND UNDERSTANDING?

Friday, March 24th, 5:30-7:30pm

Cantor Film Center, Room 200

Can large language models genuinely think about the world, mean what they say, and understand language?  A number of theorists have argued that AI systems need grounding in sensory processes and the external environment in order to have these capacities.  If so, then if large language models lack the appropriate sensory grounding, there will be fundamental limitations on their thinking, meaning, and understanding. This debate will bring together AI researchers, linguists, philosophers, and psychologists on both sides of this issue.

Speakers:

Yes:

• Yann LeCun (New York University / Meta AI)
• Brenden Lake (New York University)
• Jacob Browning (New York University)

No:

• David Chalmers (New York University)
• Ellie Pavlick (Brown University / Google AI)
• Gary Lupyan (University of Wisconsin–Madison)

 

This public debate is linked with the workshop on the philosophy of deep learning on March 25th-26th, co-hosted by the NYU Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness and the Columbia Center for Science and Society.