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A comment on Every model learned by gradient descent is approximately a kernel machine (2020). Parent comment

Re:Every model learned by gradient descent is approximately ... by dartos on Sunday February 25, 2024 @09:43AM (#39501172)
You can imagine human behavior is like a stochastic parrot (the name of your argument,) but that’s, again, a gross oversimplification of the human experience.

I don’t really feel like having the stochastic parrot debate again, but look it up.

We’re more than parrots.

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Re:Every model learned by gradient descent is approximately ... by vidarh on Sunday February 25, 2024 @11:09AM (#39501920)
The notion of a stochastic parrot is just a subset of this. It is what I'm arguing against, not for, on the basis that talking about "just" a statistical model is meaningless exactly because something being a statistical model does not imply it is just a stochastical parrot. As such it's a wildly misleading claim to make.

Yes, we're more than parrots, but that does not mean we can be described equally validly as "statistical models". Suggesting something is "just" a statistical model is a statement that is close to semantically void. It tells us near nothing about the computational limits - up or down - of something. Even a very simple system for running a statistical model with a loop around it providing IO can be made Turing complete.

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