Theory of mind (ToM), or the ability to impute unobservable mental states to others, is central to human social interactions, communication, empathy, self-consciousness, and morality. We tested several language models using 40 classic false-belief tasks widely used to test ToM in humans. The models published before 2020 showed virtually no ability to solve ToM tasks. Yet, the first version of GPT-3 ("davinci-001"), published in May 2020, solved about 40% of false-belief tasks-performance comparable with 3.5-year-old children. Its second version ("davinci-002"; January 2022) solved 70% of false-belief tasks, performance comparable with six-year-olds. Its most recent version, GPT-3.5 ("davinci-003"; November 2022), solved 90% of false-belief tasks, at the level of seven-year-olds. GPT-4 published in March 2023 solved nearly all the tasks (95%). These findings suggest that ToM-like ability (thus far considered to be uniquely human) may have spontaneously emerged as a byproduct of language models' improving language skills.
翻译:心智理论(ToM)或将不可观察的精神状态归结于他人的能力,是人类社会互动、沟通、同情、自我意识和道德的核心。 我们用40种典型的虚假信仰任务测试了几种语言模式,这些模式在人类中广泛用于测试 ToM 。 2020年之前公布的模型显示几乎没有能力解决 ToM 任务。 然而,2020年5月出版的第一版GPT-3 (“davinici-001”)解决了大约40%与3.5岁孩子相当的虚假信仰任务-表现。第二版(“davinici-002”;2022年1月20-22年1月)解决了70%的虚假信仰任务,其表现与6岁的孩子相当。其最新版本GPT-3.5 (“davinci-003”;2022年11月,GPT-3)解决了90%的7岁任务。2023年3月出版的GPT-4解决了几乎所有任务(95 % ) 。这些结论表明,TM类似的能力(远被认为是人类的独特能力)可能通过语言模型自动出现。</s>