Almost three years ago I wrote a post responding to some early LLM hype, and somewhat unexpectedly, that post served as the kernel for a chapter in a book that has just been published! The book, Artificial Knowledge of Language: A Linguist’s Perspective on Its Nature, Origins and Use (Vernon Press) includes 8 essays from scholars offering a critical view of the relation between LLMs and the human Language Faculty.

On a personal note, the process of converting my post to a published chapter required me to more fully engage with the scholarly community around LLMs both in the published (usually not peer-reviewed) literature and undergoing anonymous peer review, and this engagement left me somewhat surprised at the intellectual bankruptcy in that community, and frightened that they are taken seriously by society at large.

Artificial Knowledge of Language: A Linguist’s Perspective on Its Nature, Origins and Use is edited by José-Luis Mendívil-Giró and published by Vernon Press