How LLMs Might Think
Artificial Intelligence
2026-04-14 v1 Computation and Language
Abstract
Do large language models (LLMs) think? Daniel Stoljar and Zhihe Vincent Zhang have recently developed an argument from rationality for the claim that LLMs do not think. We contend, however, that the argument from rationality not only falters, but leaves open an intriguing possibility: that LLMs engage only in arational, associative forms of thinking, and have purely associative minds. Our positive claim is that if LLMs think at all, they likely think precisely in this manner.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.09674,
title = {How LLMs Might Think},
author = {Joseph Gottlieb and Ethan Kemp and Matthew Trager},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.09674},
year = {2026}
}