If I write a book that contains Einstein's theory of relativity by virtue of me copying it, did I create the theory? Did my copying of it indicate anything about my understanding of it? Would you be justified to think the next book I write would have anything of original value?
I think what he is trying to say is that LLMs current architecture seems to mainly work by understanding patterns in the existing body of knowledge. In some senses finding patterns could be considered creative and entail reasoning. And that might be the degree to which LLMs could be said to be capable of reasoning or creativity.
But it is clear humans are capable of creativity and reasoning that are not reducible to mere pattern matching and this is the sense of reasoning that LLMs are not currently capable of.
I think what he is trying to say is that LLMs current architecture seems to mainly work by understanding patterns in the existing body of knowledge. In some senses finding patterns could be considered creative and entail reasoning. And that might be the degree to which LLMs could be said to be capable of reasoning or creativity.
But it is clear humans are capable of creativity and reasoning that are not reducible to mere pattern matching and this is the sense of reasoning that LLMs are not currently capable of.