Column Artificial Intelligence

Why large language models aren’t headed toward humanlike understanding

Generative AI is not very skillful at applying what it learns to new situations

By Tom Siegfried

Contributing Correspondent

Two abstract heads look at each other. One has a computer brain and the other has a real human brain.

As impressive as they seem, the latest computer brains usually fail at tasks that require generalizing concepts — tasks that come easily to humans.

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Apart from the northward advance of killer bees in the 1980s, nothing has struck as much fear into the hearts of headline writers as the ascent of artificial intelligence.