I think calling it simply an LLM is incorrect also. There clearly is intelligence in these models that has _emerged_ that goes far beyond simple “it’s just doing auto-completion”.

I think in general what’s causing so many people to be thrown for a loop is a lack of understanding or consideration of emergent behavior in systems. Break down the individual components of the human body and brain and someone could easily come to the same conclusion that “it’s just X”. Human intelligence and consciousness is all emergent as well. AGI will very likely will be emergent as well.