MEMORY, CONSCIOUSNESS AND LARGE LANGUAGE MODEL

ICLR 2024 Workshop AGI Submission4 Authors

Keywords: Cognitive Science, Large Language Models, Tulving, Emergent Abilities, Consciousness

TL;DR: A conjecture suggesting the existence of a duality between LLMs and Tulving's theory of memory and a potential correspondence between Tulving's synergistic ecphory model (SEM) of retrieval and the emergent abilities observed in LLMs is proposed.

Abstract: With the development in cognitive science and Large Language Models (LLMs), increasing connections have come to light between these two distinct fields. Building upon these connections, we propose a conjecture suggesting the existence of a duality between LLMs and Tulving’s theory of memory. We identify a potential correspondence between Tulving’s synergistic ecphory model (SEM) of retrieval and the emergent abilities observed in LLMs, serving as supporting evidence for our conjecture. Furthermore, we speculate that consciousness may be considered a form of emergent ability based on this duality. We also discuss how other theories of consciousness intersect with our research.

Submission Number: 4