Large language models have learned to use language

Abstract

Acknowledging that large language models have learned to use language can open doors to breakthrough language science. Achieving these breakthroughs may require abandoning some long-held ideas about how language knowledge is evaluated and reckoning with the difficult fact that we have entered a post-Turing test era.

Commentary on Futrell & Mahowald's How Linguistics Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Language Models (BBS, Forthcoming)