Large language models are great, but they don’t speak to me

As I write this, we have recently concluded the Year of Machine Learning Nobel Prizes. Who knows, perhaps there will be another in 20 years, but this was the first. As someone who has a reputation for being an AI/ML skeptic (which I sometimes think is the default category for anyone who actually reads the press releases all the way to the end), I should say immediately that I think that all of the prizes this year were well-deserved.