Recent results show that large language models struggle with compositional tasks, suggesting a hard limit to their abilities.

The post Chatbot Software Begins to Face Fundamental Limitations first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Summary

  • Recent studies into the capabilities and limits of large language models (LLMs) have suggested that these systems perform pattern matching instead of true reasoning.
  • In one study, an LLM was tested on a variation of the classic “Einstein’s Puzzle” and performed poorly, even with iterations of questions that were similar to those in its training data.
  • Another study proved that even multilayer transformers have inherent limits when it comes to solving certain types of compositional reasoning problems.
  • While these results suggest that LLMs don’t reason, they aren’t a death knell for the technology as they simply highlight the limits of current approaches and the need to find alternatives.

By Anil Ananthaswamy

Original Article