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🦸🏻#10: Does Present-Day GenAI Actually Reason?

we discuss what 'reasoning' actually means and the modes of thinking that we should work on to get closer to AGI

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Ksenia Se & Charles Fadel
February 15, 2025

Recent advancements in AI models, such as OpenAI's o1 and o3, DeepSeek's R1, and Google's Gemini 2.0, have sparked an ongoing debate: Do these systems truly have the capacity to reason?

This article is a sort of virtual conversation with two Turing Post readers: Charles Fadel, founder and chairman of the Center for Curriculum Redesign, and John Thompson, author of Casual AI and the upcoming Path to AGI. Our topic of discussion is reasoning – a vast and complex subject.

However, we’ll set aside the technical details about reasoning and planning in models and agentic systems for next Friday. Today, we’ll focus on what we mean by reasoning, exploring its different types and the various ways we think and process information.

To address this question, we must first define our terms clearly. By drawing insights from machine learning, philosophy, and psychology, we aim to clarify what reasoning is – and what it isn’t – before evaluating how AI models “thinking” compares to human thought.

It all started when Charles Fadel wrote to me, asking if I’d like to base an article on his paper "Does Present Day GenAI Actually Reason?" In that paper, Charles aimed to clarify two fundamental questions:

  1. What are the cognitive processes involved in human reasoning?

  2. To what extent can GenAI replicate or mimic these processes?

I agreed, and soon after, I came across an insightful comment from John Thompson:

“We must be careful with terminology. Many keep talking about models reasoning. Reasoning (at least to me) infers some level of original thinking or thought. LLMs do not reason. They infer at incredibly fast rates, but they do not reason.

Now we are hearing things like, models get better when they have more time to ‘think.’ This is not thinking. This is looping until a condition is met. This is goal-seeking, not thinking.”

John’s perspective highlights a key issue – what exactly do we mean by reasoning? Charles acknowledged this challenge in his paper:

"A primary challenge in addressing these questions is the lack of a single, universally accepted definition of reasoning or even of 'modes of thinking' in the literature. The cognitive sciences recognize numerous forms of thinking, ranging from analytical and deductive reasoning to creative and intuitive processes. However, the definitions and boundaries between these modes are often ambiguous."

To clarify, Charles proposed the following definition of reasoning:

  • A conscious cognitive process.

  • The ability to form conclusions, make inferences, or generate explanations based on premises, facts, or evidence.

  • Often follows structured logical principles, though not limited to formal logic.

After reviewing dictionary and research-based definitions, he synthesized reasoning into a concise description:

"Reasoning is the process of thinking through facts or premises to form explanations, draw inferences, or make decisions."

Reasoning is one of the key building blocks of any agentic system.

Modes of Thinking

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