Hi Bennie. They are not statistical lookups any more than the human brain is. A lot of human thinking is simply looking up patterns that one has observed before.

Researchers _have_ concluded that GPT-4 _does_ think in a sense. It can create new ideas. I can also apply abstract ideas to new situations. I will cite some research papers if you like.

One confusion that many people have is that they believe that to "think", one has to be "sentient". But there is no reason to believe that, and the evidence so far indicates otherwise. It seems that sentience is likely a sideshow, in a sense - that awareness is not actually part of "thinking" or "reasoning". Again, I will provide references to the research if you like.