To the editor: Visitor contributor Iddo Gefen not solely laments the analogy between the human mind and synthetic intelligence, however he additionally means that human minds don’t study or recall like an AI (“The human mind doesn’t study, suppose or recall like an AI. Embrace the distinction,” July 9). In truth, Gefen will get it backwards: Current giant language reasoning fashions of AI study, recall and remedy issues a lot in the way in which people do.
People (and different animals) study most of our vital behaviors by way of reinforcement, the foundational regulation of studying first urged by psychologist Edward Thorndike’s Legislation of Impact and later experimentally investigated and confirmed by the behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner and his colleagues.
As well as, verbal people often remedy issues by speaking (and imagining) to ourselves till we discover a answer. Reinforcement performs a important position in studying and interesting in problem-solving habits. Reasoning LL fashions of AI which are additionally programmed to study by way of reinforcement mimic such problem-solving behaviors in people and at the moment are among the many strongest AI machines.
Sadly, alongside the way in which, Gefen ventures past his experience as a neuroscientist and mischaracterizes “behaviorist psychology.” If he regarded deeper, nevertheless, he would discover that behavioral psychologists have found legal guidelines of habits which have revolutionized the remedy of a variety of habits problems, in addition to revolutionizing schooling. They now present the inspiration for a complete new technology of AI machines that suppose and study like people.
Henry D. Schlinger Jr., Glendale
This author is a professor of psychology at Cal State Los Angeles.
