“Mastery of language is mastery of human thought.” is easy to prove false.

The current batch of AIs is an excellent data point. These things are very good at language, and they still can’t even count.

The average celebrity provides evidence that it is false. People who excel at science often suck at talking, and vice-versa.

We didn’t talk our way to the moon.

Even when these LLMs master language, it’s not evidence that they’re doing any actual thinking, yet.