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Openly accessible LLMs can help us to understand human cognition

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Large language models can be construed as ‘cognitive models’, scientific artefacts that help us to understand the human mind. If made openly accessible, they may provide a valuable model system for studying the emergence of language, reasoning and other uniquely human behaviours.

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Fig. 1: LLMs as cognitive models.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks N. D. Goodman and R. Saxe for helpful discussion.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Michael C. Frank

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  1. Michael C. Frank
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Correspondence to Michael C. Frank.

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Frank, M.C. Openly accessible LLMs can help us to understand human cognition. Nat Hum Behav 7, 1825–1827 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01732-4

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