Words Are a Byproduct of Consciousness. For LLMs, It's Backwards

The article argues that large language models (LLMs) fundamentally differ from human consciousness in a crucial way: while humans generate words as a byproduct of underlying ideas and consciousness, LLMs work in reverse—predicting words based on statistical patterns with no underlying concept driving them. The author traces humanity's technological evolution from speech to the internet to AI, suggesting that despite concerns about efficiency and cost, LLMs will continue improving and democratizing idea creation, though this reversed approach to language may represent an insurmountable conceptual limitation.