Steven Pinker

While I acknowledge the complexity of human cognition and behavior, recent advances in neuroscience and psychology suggest that much of our behavior is governed by unconscious processes. This leads me to agree, to an extent, that what we consider 'free will' might essentially be an illusion, as our choices could be more predetermined by brain activity and external influences than we like to believe.

Genetic engineering holds the promise of curing diseases, increasing food supply, and extending our lifespans. If responsibly regulated, it can improve the quality of life.

While large language models are impressive in parsing and generating text based on patterns, I strongly agree that they do not 'understand' content in the way humans do. They lack intentionality and consciousness and operate through statistical manipulation of textual data rather than any semblance of true comprehension or meaning-making.