Top computer scientist: ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini don't understand a word they say
Computer scientist Peter J. Denning argues that modern AI development is fundamentally flawed because it relies on the Turing test's assumption that intelligence can exist without a physical body. He contends that AI lacks 'tacit knowledge'—human-like common sense and physical experience—and therefore does not truly understand the information it processes.
Why it matters
This perspective challenges the current trajectory of AGI development and questions the actual capabilities of large language models in real-world applications.
As ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini race towards AGI, computer scientist Peter J. Denning says Alan Turing's 'famous test' sent AI down the wrong road 75 years ago; adds: We are aliens across an...Alan Turing's 1950 paper is where modern AI starts. It is also, according to computer scientist Peter J. Denning, where modern AI went wrong. In a new book, "Turing's Mistake: Escaping the Yoke of Unintelligent Machines", Denning argues that two assumptions Turing made that year have quietly shaped 75 years of research: that intelligence can exist without a body, and therefore run as software; and that a machine can prove it thinks by imitating a human in conversation.That second idea became the Turing test. Denning's verdict is blunt. "These two claims have shaped much of AI research and development," he writes.
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