Introduction

1.11 Anthropomorphism and terminology

1. What is anthropomorphism, and what is the intentional stance?
   Anthropomorphism is attributing human traits, emotions or cognition to non-humans. The intentional stance (Dennett) is interpreting an entity, like an LM, as if it were a rational human agent.
   • Jurafsky & Martin, Speech and Language Processing, 3rd ed. draft, ch. 1, §1.11, p. 31
2. Why is anthropomorphic language about LLMs problematic, and how does the book handle it?
   Words like understand or intend imply incorrect things about a model’s agency and intentionality. The book still uses words like learn and forget as convenient shorthand, and asks readers to read them that way.
   • Jurafsky & Martin, Speech and Language Processing, 3rd ed. draft, ch. 1, §1.11, p. 31