Words used to be evidence

Set aside whether you were really talking to someone. The feeling itself reveals an old assumption.

In ordinary conversation, fluent language gives us good reason to infer a speaker who understands the subject. We assumed that to explain rain, you first had to know what rain was. The understanding came first. The words came afterward.

The language model behind a chat product has never stood in rain. It has no childhood memory of arriving home soaked. Yet it can explain why rain falls, continue a story about a storm, or explain why someone forgot an umbrella.

Fluent words no longer prove that a person chose them.

So what does producing those words require?