If LLMs Have Human-Like Attributes, Then So Does Age of Empires II
A paper challenges loose anthropomorphic claims about LLMs using Age of Empires II as a provocative comparison.
The paper argues that claims about LLMs having human-like attributes, such as morality or language understanding, can be methodologically fragile. By building and training a simple neural network on Age of Empires II, the author suggests such attributes may not be empirically unique to LLMs. The key recommendation is to define explicit measurement criteria and use a null assumption of LLM non-uniqueness before drawing anthropomorphic conclusions.
This paper addresses a problem that is common in AI research but easily overlooked: when researchers say an LLM possesses "understanding," "moral judgment," or other human-like attributes, are these claims rigorously measured by experiment, or are they interpretations induced by the way the model presents itself? The author, Adrian de Wynter, is not directly arguing that LLMs definitely lack these attributes, nor trying to prove that they do exist; rather, he cautions that without clear, operational measurement standards, such conclusions may be wrong, or at least lack a sufficient empirical basis.
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