Epistemology
Understanding in the Age of LLMs
Understanding in the Age of LLMs
v1.3 | 2026-07-28 | Status: Published | Admonition: Speculative
The Question
When an LLM produces a correct answer, a compelling argument, or a novel insight, what does it understand? And more importantly for us: what do we understand when we use these tools?
Types of Understanding
I propose a taxonomy of understanding that helps us navigate this question:
1. Syntactic Understanding
Definition: Understanding the structure and rules of symbols.