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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gottlieb, Joseph, Kemp, Ethan, Trager, Matthew
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09674
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author Gottlieb, Joseph
Kemp, Ethan
Trager, Matthew
author_facet Gottlieb, Joseph
Kemp, Ethan
Trager, Matthew
contents Do large language models (LLMs) think? Daniel Stoljar and Zhihe Vincent Zhang have recently developed an argument from rationality for the claim that LLMs do not think. We contend, however, that the argument from rationality not only falters, but leaves open an intriguing possibility: that LLMs engage only in arational, associative forms of thinking, and have purely associative minds. Our positive claim is that if LLMs think at all, they likely think precisely in this manner.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_09674
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle How LLMs Might Think
Gottlieb, Joseph
Kemp, Ethan
Trager, Matthew
Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
Do large language models (LLMs) think? Daniel Stoljar and Zhihe Vincent Zhang have recently developed an argument from rationality for the claim that LLMs do not think. We contend, however, that the argument from rationality not only falters, but leaves open an intriguing possibility: that LLMs engage only in arational, associative forms of thinking, and have purely associative minds. Our positive claim is that if LLMs think at all, they likely think precisely in this manner.
title How LLMs Might Think
topic Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09674