Evaluating large language models in theory of mind tasks

Significance Humans automatically and effortlessly track others’ unobservable mental states, such as their knowledge, intentions, beliefs, and desires. This ability—typically called “theory of mind” (ToM)—is fundamental to human social interactions, communication, empathy, consciousness, moral judgment, and religious beliefs. Our results show that recent large language models (LLMs) can solve false-belief tasks, typically used to evaluate ToM in humans. Regardless of how we interpret these outcomes, they signify the advent of more powerful and socially skilled AI—with profound positive and negative implications.