On the Computation of Meaning, Language Models and Incomprehensible Horrors

Abstract

We bring together foundational theories of meaning and a mathematical formalism of artificial general intelligence to provide a mechanistic explanation of meaning, communication and symbol emergence. We establish circumstances under which a machine might mean what we think it means by what it says, or comprehend what we mean by what we say. We conclude that a language model such as ChatGPT does not comprehend or engage in meaningful communication with humans, though it may exhibit complex behaviours such as theory of mind.

Topics & Concepts