On the compatibility of generative AI and generative linguistics

Abstract

Chomsky’s generative linguistics has made substantial contributions to cognitive science and symbolic artificial intelligence. With the rise of neural language models, however, the compatibility between generative artificial intelligence and generative linguistics has come under debate. Here we outline three ways in which generative artificial intelligence aligns with and supports the core ideas of generative linguistics. In turn, generative linguistics can provide criteria to evaluate and improve neural language models as models of human language and cognition. This Perspective discusses that generative AI aligns with generative linguistics by showing that neural language models (NLMs) are formal generative models. Furthermore, generative linguistics offers a framework for evaluating and improving NLMs.