Daniel Freeman at Noema:
It is past midnight in a fluorescent-lit office. A neuroscientist opens ChatGPT and uploads the seventh version of a paper, which is littered with critical notes from a peer reviewer. “Why is Reviewer #2 such an idiot?” the neuroscientist asks the chatbot. The reply comes instantly, witty and sympathetic, reframing the criticism in a way that puts everything into perspective. The neuroscientist laughs, then pauses.
How can this computer seem so very human? It demonstrates abilities we usually associate with intelligent beings: language, abstraction, social inference, even a sense of humor. The design of modern chatbots was inspired by the neocortex, the pinnacle of mammalian evolution, so their human-like behavior should not have come as a complete surprise. But what few anticipated was that such complex behavior could emerge in the complete absence of biological neurons.
More here.
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