CAN AN AI FEEL TIME?

Your kettle takes three minutes to boil. Unless you stand beside it, in which case it takes eleven.

The clock might deny this. But then, the clock has never wanted a cup of tea.

An afternoon can disappear in good company, while the last five minutes of a meeting develop several new minutes of their own.

Our sense of time is tangled up with attention, memory and what is happening to us.

Nothing is happening to a language model.

The words in a chat arrive in order, but that order doesn't tell it how much time passed between them. 'I'm back' could mean you've answered the door or spent a fortnight in France.

It can time the kettle, but it can't want the tea.

And not feeling time could be why it's hopeless at guessing how long something might take.

Which becomes your problem when you open a chat to clear up one small thing and the next thing you know it's dark outside.

And your tea has gone cold.

Happy Monday.