The premise of AI large language models (LLMs) is that any problem can be solved by vacuuming up as much information as possible, running it through probability models, and performing complex calculations to make predictions and come up with the optimal solution.

Another premise behind LLMs is that they emulate the way human brains operate. This is why computers can simulate human intelligence in the first place—and one of the reasons AI is so fascinating and terrifying. If AI can solve problems better and faster than a person can, what do we need humans for?

But Douglas Guilbeault, an associate professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business who has done a lot of thinking about the way people think, doesn’t believe our brains work this way at all.

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