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Independent-Ant-4678 t1_jdr0ksn wrote

Reply to comment by ecnecn in Why is maths so hard for LLMs? by RadioFreeAmerika

An interesting thing crossed my mind while reading your answer. There is a disability called Dyscalculia which means that a person does not understand numbers, the person can learn that 7 + 3 = 10, but does not understand why. I have a relative who has this disability and to me it seems that people having this disability have poor reasoning abilities similar to current LLMs like GPT-4. They can learn many languages fluently, they can express their opinion on complex subjects, but they still have poor reasoning. My thinking is that, with the current LLMs we've already created the language center of the brain, but the mathematical center still needs to be created as that one will give the AI reasoning abilities (just like in people who don't have Dyscalculia)

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Avid_Autodidact t1_jdsmy50 wrote

Fascinating! thanks for sharing.

I would imagine creating that "mathematical" part of the brain might involve a different approach than just predicting the next combination of arithmetic operators. As you put it someone learning 7+10 = 10 is similar to how LLMs work with the data they are trained on, whereas with something like Wolfram Alpha the methods of solving have to be programmed.

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Ytumith t1_jduecob wrote

Poor reasoning as in general understanding or specific for maths and math-using natural sciences?

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RadioFreeAmerika OP t1_jduhkmz wrote

Interesting, just voiced the same thought in a reply to another comment. I can totally see this being the case in one way or another.

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