Don’t be fooled—LLMs don’t reason

In March 2016, during a Go match in Seoul, AlphaGo made a seemingly absurd move, move 37, which some commentators initially thought was a glitch. This event highlighted a machine analogue to Daniel Kahneman's theory of human thought, distinguishing between System 1 (fast, intuitive) and System 2 (slow, deliberative). AlphaGo's networks provided intuitive hunches, while its search capabilities offered deliberation, testing these hunches. This dual process, where intuition and deliberation work together, was crucial, as neither could succeed alone.

This account, from a core AlphaGo team member, offers an insider's perspective on the famous Move 37, unlike other reports that only speculate on its significance.