Sara Emily Burke

Associate Professor at Syracuse University (psychological science of intergroup bias)

Website: https://saraemilyburke.com/
Lab Website: https://sburke08.expressions.syr.edu/

Last Notes

2026-05-23 20:56:46 GMT

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I mean they are much worse at it than non-black-box software designed for the purpose.

2026-05-23 16:26:34 GMT

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Yeah, that sounds about right, except for the part about logic. I think LLMs cannot do logic either - plenty of hand-coded computer programs can handle logic, but LLMs are uniquely bad at it. I don't think this is semantic, though: having a thought and then putting it into words implies a kind of consistency that LLMs are incapable of because they only manipulate the words themselves.

2026-05-23 11:46:47 GMT

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Certainly. I don't attribute the gulf to the fact that humans are alive, but rather to the fact that LLMs are statistical models of language, and I think that reasoning cannot be built in that way. I don't claim to know why humans reason, I only claim that language does not precede reasoning and observing patterns in language cannot produce it.

2026-05-22 02:30:05 GMT

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Yes, I know the specific post I replied to was not the main topic of your thread. I just don't think the massive gulf in capacity between biological minds and LLMs is a figment of magical thinking.
As for logic, maybe because it operates at the level of abstractions that can be thought of as inherently symbolic it necessarily reduces to a kind of language -- but not the kind of language LLMs are trained on anyway. It certainly does not make sense to learn formal logic statistically.

2026-05-21 16:29:54 GMT

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This seems like a straw man. LLMs *don't* reason or think - not because of a mysterious life force, but because they are statistical models of language, and reasoning is very clearly not tied to language, as anyone who struggled to put a thought into words (or, like, spent time with a baby) knows on some level.

2025-02-10 06:35:15 GMT

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Do not simply adjust to the ongoing catastrophe. Never shut up about it. Call your representatives and ask them never to shut up about it.

2025-02-10 06:35:07 GMT

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This administration is attempting to deny access to public data, compel scientific fraud, renege on funding allocated for scientific and medical research, destroy the lives of transgender people and immigrants, dismantle constitutional checks and balances, and normalize White supremacist authoritarianism.

2025-02-10 06:34:58 GMT

What I want for my birthday is to end Trumpist ideological interference in science, healthcare, and the basic nonpartisan functions of government (including, for example, the important work done at the FBI, the CDC, and the CFPB).