Who cares about semantics? Define what thinking means in a human. I did computer engineering, I know how a computer works, and I also know how an LLM works. Call it what you want if calling it "thinking" makes you emotional.

I think it's better to accept that people can install their thinking into a machine, and that machine will continue that thought independently. This is true for a valve that lets off steam when the pressure is high, it is certainly true for an LLM. I really don't understand the authenticity babble, it seems very ideological or even religious.

But I'm not friends with a valve or an LLM. They're thinking tools, like calculators and thermostats. But to me arguing about whether they "think" is like arguing whether an argument is actually "tired" or a book is really "expressing" something. Or for that matter, whether the air conditioner "turned itself off" or the baseball "broke" the window.

Also, I think what you meant to say is that there is no prompt that causes an LLM to think. When you use "think" it is difficult to say whether you are using scare quotes or quoting me; it makes the sentence ambiguous. I understand the ambiguity. Call it what you want.

I stated a simple fact you apparently agree with. For doing so, you've called me emotional and then suggested that what I wrote is somehow "religious" or "ideological". Take a breath, touch grass, etc.