The Great Chatbot Debate: Do LLMs Really Understand?

Do Large Language Models like Chat GPT have the “sparks” of true intelligence, or are they merely “stochastic parrots,” lacking understanding and meaning. Hear a debate on this matter between University of Washington's computational linguist Emily Bender and OpenAI's Sébastien Bubeck. IEEE Spectrum Senior Editor Eliza Strickland moderatesThis program was a partnership with IEEE Spectrum and was made possible by the generous support of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. This conversation was recorded on March 25, 2025 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, as a part of the CHM Live series. To watch a video of this program, please visit the Computer History Museum's YouTube channel.To learn more about the Computer History Museum and our upcoming CHM Live events, visit our website at www.computerhistory.org