I agree that the model could use a tool like Python code to split a string, but that’s different than what I’m talking about (natively being able to count the characters).
Hmm, I don’t see how that’s related to what I wrote.
I meant that the model has seen a ton of python code. Some of that code had operations on text. Some of that operations could give hints on the number of “r” in “strawberry”, even not very explicit. The model could deduce from that.
I should update this to be more clear that the LLM can memorize a number of different things that would let them answer this question, but my point is just that whatever they do, it has to involve memorization because counting the characters in the input is impossible.
I agree this has to involve some memorization. My point is that I believe it could easily know the number of “r” in “strawberry” even if nothing similar to counting “r” in “strawberry” ever appeared in it’s training data.
Oh I see what you mean. Yes, if the model saw a bunch of examples implying things about the character structure of the token, it could memorize that and use it to spell the word. My point is just that it has to learn this info about each token from the training data since it can’t read the characters.
Hmm, I don’t see how that’s related to what I wrote.
I meant that the model has seen a ton of python code. Some of that code had operations on text. Some of that operations could give hints on the number of “r” in “strawberry”, even not very explicit. The model could deduce from that.
I agree this has to involve some memorization. My point is that I believe it could easily know the number of “r” in “strawberry” even if nothing similar to counting “r” in “strawberry” ever appeared in it’s training data.
Oh I see what you mean. Yes, if the model saw a bunch of examples implying things about the character structure of the token, it could memorize that and use it to spell the word. My point is just that it has to learn this info about each token from the training data since it can’t read the characters.