I think we're drastically oversimplifying what "pattern matching" means. It is also one of the fundamental mechanisms by which the human brain operates. I believe we are consciously (or perhaps subconsciously) conditioned to think that human "logic" and "reasoning" are several degrees more advanced than pattern matching. However, I don't think this is true.

The fundamental difference lies in how patterns are formed in each case. For LLMs, all they know are the patterns they observe in "words" - that is the only "sense" they possess. But for humans, pattern recognition involves continuously ingesting and identifying patterns across our five primary senses—not just separately, but simultaneously.

For example, when an LLM describes something as "ball-shaped," it cannot feel the shape of a ball because it lacks another sense to associate with the word "ball-shaped." In contrast, humans have the sense of touch, allowing them to associate the word or sound pattern "ball" with the physical sensation of holding a ball.

>`It is also one of the fundamental mechanisms by which the human brain operates.

One of the fundamental mechanisms by which brains operate. The bits we share with every other animal with a brain,

good luck teaching your dog to code.

being great at fetching your newspaper in the morning doesn't mean its going to wake up and write you an accounting software package at the end of the year.

We don't even need that example. The example is in front of us. Take a smaller parameter model and ask it to do the same complex thing that a larger parameter model did. It will struggle.

Btw, I'm not saying it's just the number of parameters that matters.