Knowledge in Animals and Machines

Abstract

Drawing on philosophical theories of knowledge, I develop a conceptual framework for knowledge in animals and machines. I use this framework to engineer a new concept of large language model (LLM) knowledge and propose a taxonomy of knowledge that spans biological and artificial categories, from C. elegans to LLMs. The approach lays a foundation for a rigorous account of how knowledge can be realized across animals and machines while at the same time respecting the diverse biological and physical sources of such knowledge.