I mean... Is that not reasoning, I guess? It's what my brain does-- recognizes patterns and makes split second decisions.

So they have worked out that LLMs do what they were programmed to do in the way that they were programmed? Shocking.

It's not just the memorization of patterns that matters, it's the recall of appropriate patterns on demand. Call it what you will, even if AI is just a better librarian for search work, that's value - that's the new Google.

I use LLMs as advanced search engines. No ads or sponsored results.

Why would they "prove" something that's completely obvious?

The burden of proof is on the grifters who have overwhelmingly been making false claims and distorting language for decades.

Yah of course they do they’re computers

This sort of thing has been published a lot for awhile now, but why is it assumed that this isn't what human reasoning consists of? Isn't all our reasoning ultimately a form of pattern memorization? I sure feel like it is. So to me all these studies that prove they're "just" memorizing patterns don't prove anything other than that, unless coupled with research on the human brain to prove we do something different.

OK, and? A car doesn't run like a horse either, yet they are still very useful.

I'm fine with the distinction between human reasoning and LLM "reasoning".

Fair, but the same is true of me. I don't actually "reason"; I just have a set of algorithms memorized by which I propose a pattern that seems like it might match the situation, then a different pattern by which I break the situation down into smaller components and then apply patterns to those components. I keep the process up for a while. If I find a "nasty logic error" pattern match at some point in the process, I "know" I've found a "flaw in the argument" or "bug in the design".

But there's no from-first-principles method by which I developed all these patterns; it's just things that have survived the test of time when other patterns have failed me.

I don't think people are underestimating the power of LLMs to think; I just think people are overestimating the power of humans to do anything other than language prediction and sensory pattern prediction.

It has so much data, it might as well be reasoning. As it helped me with my problem.