About whether an LLM answering specific questions about a subject shows understanding.
Has this happened?
Yes 86 (75%)Not sure 18 (16%)No 11 (10%)
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?
About whether an LLM answering specific questions about a subject shows understanding.
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
"If an LLM can answer specific questions about a subject, does this demonstrate true understanding? If not, why not?"
If it could, I would say there is understanding. But in every area where I have expertise, I see LLMs failing my questions. Just like a bad student would, who memorized textbooks, but did not connect or process the knowledge in any way.