The Case That A.I. Is Thinking

Re:The Case That A.I. Is Thinking by skeeter2020 on Tuesday November 04, 2025 @09:32AM (#45811454)

I don't like it for a permanent solution, but "synthetic thought" might make a good enough placeholder until we figure this out. It feels most important to differentiate because I believe some parties have a personal interest in purposely confusing human thought with whatever LLMs are doing right now.

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Re:The Case That A.I. Is Thinking by N7lo4nl34akaoSN on Tuesday November 04, 2025 @11:54AM (#45813150)

"artificial thought"

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Re:The Case That A.I. Is Thinking by pmarreck on Tuesday November 04, 2025 @12:51PM (#45813828)

that's too clunky. in fact, "clunky thinking" is what gave me the idea of "thunking"

you guys would have called lightsabers "laser swords" like Lucas originally did before Alec Guinness corrected him

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Re:The Case That A.I. Is Thinking by Ir0nMan on Tuesday November 04, 2025 @01:44PM (#45814472)

>"artificial thought"

How about Artificial Intelligence?

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Re:The Case That A.I. Is Thinking by pmarreck on Tuesday November 04, 2025 @02:09PM (#45814749)

"intelligence" encompassing "thinking" then becomes the hangup.

I still say it needs a new name. If we want to be generous, we could state "the limit as time approaches infinity of thunking, is thinking." (I don't believe we will ever achieve astronomically-superior AGI, and certainly don't believe it will ever have a will of its own that someone else didn't give it- which just makes it a tool.)

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Re:The Case That A.I. Is Thinking by pmarreck on Tuesday November 04, 2025 @12:39PM (#45813681)

agreed.

also, sorry but you (fellow) nerds are terrible at naming.

while "thunking" possibly name-collides with "thunks" from CS, the key is that it is memorable, 2 syllables, a bit whimsical and just different enough to both indicate its source meaning as well as some possible unstated difference. Plus it reminds me of "clunky" which is exactly what it is - "clunky thinking" aka "thunking".

And frankly, the idea it's naming is far bigger than what a "thunk" is in CS

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Re:The Case That A.I. Is Thinking by Libidinalecon on Tuesday November 04, 2025 @06:37PM (#45817184)

This is complete nonsense.

If you do math in your head or math with a pencil/paper or math with a pocket calculator or with a spreadsheet or in a programming language, it is all the same thing.

The only difference with LLMs is the anthropomorphization of the tool.

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