Hey author here. Your argument is completely valid, we only model physics implicitly and thus have no prove that the model "actually knows the physics". Practically, this might not matter much: If the model can predict the evolution of the system to a certain accuracy, the user won't care about the underlying knowledge. And even for modern physics (quantum / GR), we know we miss something and yet, the models we have are incredibly useful.
On a tangent, we cannot prove that LLMs actually know language, yet they can be incredibly useful.
Of course, a true world model would be much nicer to have, I agree with that!
On a tangent, we cannot prove that LLMs actually know language, yet they can be incredibly useful. Of course, a true world model would be much nicer to have, I agree with that!