SMRTR AIJan 13, 2025Quanta Magazine

Can AI Models Show Us How People Learn? Impossible Languages Point a Way.

SMRTR summary

A recent study contests Noam Chomsky's assertion that language models learn "impossible" languages as easily as real ones. Researchers created 12 impossible languages by modifying English text and found modern language models struggled more with these than regular English. The study, awarded at a linguistics conference, suggests language models could aid in understanding human language acquisition. This research contributes to the debate on whether AI systems genuinely learn language or merely mimic it superficially.

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