The Nature of Language Models as Reasoning Engines

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Language models are more of reasoning engines than knowledge bases. They are constructed with a lot of knowledge as part of the reasoning engine, which involves prediction about the next steps. These large language models operate as reasoning creative engines based on the language corpus, making them more of a reasoning engine rather than a knowledge base. Unlike what most people assume, they are not just knowledge engines but are also capable of generating creative questions and exploring hypothetical scenarios, emphasizing unpredictability and creative reasoning over providing factual information.

How can humanities and the arts flourish as artificial intelligence continues to grow and evolve? Contemporary artist Sarah Sze joins the podcast to talk about the relationship between art and technology. Reid, Aria, and Sarah discuss her recent exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the relationship between the physical and the digital, and the importance of taking art off its pedestal. Plus, Sarah takes a look at AI-generated art inspired by her body of work and offers her thoughts on AI, art, and ownership.

Read the transcript of this episode here.

View AI-generated art in the style of Sarah Sze here.

For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all of the episodes, visit www.possible.fm/podcast.

Learn about Sarah’s spring 2023 Guggenheim exhibition, Timelapse, here.

Topics:

Intros and hellos - 4:21

9:28 - Dichotomies: physical vs. digital and chaos vs. order

11:54 - How AI impacts the intrinsic value of objects

14:54 - Does AI democratize art?

16:55 - Can AI exhibit creativity?

24:35 - Sarah reacts to AI-art inspired by her work

29:44 - How AI can enhance an artist’s work

34:56 - How Sarah incorporates the digital into her art

38:47 - What different mediums do best

41:49 - How technology has previously transformed art

44:10 - Where Sarah’s work is headed

48:31 - Rapidfire questions

The award-winning Possible podcast is back with a new season that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Tune in for grounded and speculative takes on how technology—and, in particular, AI—is inspiring change and transforming the future.

This season, hosts Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, are speaking with a new set of ambitious builders and deep thinkers about everything from art to geopolitics and from healthcare to education. These conversations also showcase another kind of guest: AI. Whether it's Inflection’s Pi, OpenAI’s ChatGPT or other AI tools, each episode will use AI to enhance and advance our discussion.

Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network and hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Edie Allard, Sara Schleede, and Paloma Moreno Jiménez. Jenny Kaplan is our Executive Producer and Editor. Special thanks to Surya Yalamanchili, Saida Sapieva, Ian Alas, Greg Beato, Ben Relles, Christin Graham, and Little Monster Media Company.