Smeaton, Alan F. ORCID: 0000-0003-1028-8389
(2025)
Understanding Foundation Models: Are We Back in 1924?
The 2nd International Conference on Foundation and Large Language Models (FLLM2024)
.
ISSN 979-8-3503-5479-9
This position paper explores the rapid development of Foundation Models (FMs) in AI and their implications for intelligence and reasoning. It examines the characteristics of FMs, including their training on vast datasets and use of embedding spaces to capture semantic relationships. The paper discusses recent advancements in FMs’ reasoning abilities which we argue cannot be attributed to increased model size but to
novel training techniques which yield learning phenomena like
grokking. It also addresses the challenges in benchmarking FMs
and compares their structure to the human brain. We argue
that while FMs show promising developments in reasoning and
knowledge representation, understanding their inner workings
remains a significant challenge, similar to ongoing efforts in
neuroscience to comprehend human brain function. Despite
having some similarities, fundamental differences between FMs
and the structure of human brain warn us against making direct
comparisons or expecting neuroscience to provide immediate
insights into FM function.
Item Type: | Article (Published) |
---|---|
Refereed: | Yes |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Foundation models, benchmarking and evaluation, EEG probes, early neuroscience. |
Subjects: | Biological Sciences > Neuroscience Humanities > Biological Sciences > Neuroscience |
DCU Faculties and Centres: | Research Institutes and Centres > INSIGHT Centre for Data Analytics |
Publisher: | IEEE |
Official URL: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10852488 |
Copyright Information: | Author |
ID Code: | 30828 |
Deposited On: | 24 Mar 2025 15:22 by Gordon Kennedy . Last Modified 24 Mar 2025 15:22 |
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