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<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal · HackerPapers discussions</title><link>https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/</link><description>Collected HN comments and submissions linking this paper.</description><language>en</language><lastBuildDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2026 11:16:22 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by Gomotono</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48320517</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:48320517</guid><pubDate>Fri, 29 May 2026 08:19:32 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I do. This is the newest thng i&amp;#x27;m aware of: https://www.percepta.ai/blog/can-llms-be-computers But there were papers in 2023 with a different approach requiring external memory https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589 too&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by naasking</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45360790</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:45360790</guid><pubDate>Wed, 24 Sep 2025 14:18:25 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal, https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by famouswaffles</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39237688</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:39237688</guid><pubDate>Sat, 03 Feb 2024 05:08:29 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;No, Transformers with memory are turing complete. Like i said, the modifications are trivial. https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by famouswaffles</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37920436</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:37920436</guid><pubDate>Tue, 17 Oct 2023 19:35:14 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Transformers with memory can abstract recursively in theory. https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589. If it&amp;#x27;s just extra computation that&amp;#x27;s the kick then simply more tokens will suffice. You can even even implement a computation token if you wish. https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.02226 Frankly, the ability to truly abstract recursively is by no means necessary either. Humans can&amp;#x27;t actually do this. Either in every day practice (you will get bored, you will lose interest) or in theory (flawed memory, finite memory, you will die). Limited recursive abilities =/ trivial recursive abilities. The current state…&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by famouswaffles</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36809362</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:36809362</guid><pubDate>Fri, 21 Jul 2023 02:32:34 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;With memory they are. https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — HN submission</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36659777</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:submission:2301.04589:36659777</guid><pubDate>Sun, 09 Jul 2023 22:43:12 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Memory Augmented Large Language Models Are Computationally Universal&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;3 points; 0 discussion replies on HN. &lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and source history&lt;/a&gt;. A submission is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by spacebanana7</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35916764</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:35916764</guid><pubDate>Fri, 12 May 2023 14:21:31 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;LLMs (at least the ones with read/write memory) can exactly simulate the execution of a universal Turing machine [1]. AFAIK running such models will therefore entails the same fundamental security risks as ordinary software. [1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.04589.pdf&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by famouswaffles</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35648626</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:35648626</guid><pubDate>Fri, 21 Apr 2023 01:04:04 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Not even going to bother with the weird leap of logic you&amp;#x27;ve made here but Memory augmented LLMs are computationally universal - https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by famouswaffles</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35516911</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:35516911</guid><pubDate>Mon, 10 Apr 2023 20:20:37 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The significance of the paper is moreso the implications of how far ICL can take you rather than the ease/viability of the solution proposed. Sure there are better methods for arithmetic but arithmetic is extremely quantifiable with rigid steps. What happens when you step out of that kind of domain ? Like the above blog. or Code documentation. For example, you can paste new documentation in a gpt-4 instance and it will use it for your queries as if it trained on it. Basically Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589. and you kind of…&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by famouswaffles</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35353097</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:35353097</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Mar 2023 05:42:34 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The idea that updating weights is particularly necessary is questionable. Memory augmented llms are computationally universal. https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589 and make no mistake, in context learning can be used in a meaningful way to resolve deficiencies. gpt-3 getting 98.5% accuracy (on even very large numbers) on addition arithmetic by describing the algorithm of addition to be performed on 2 numbers. https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.09066 In context learning is just overpowered. It&amp;#x27;s essentially implicit fine-tuning https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.10559v2 as for asking questions, llms can do that…&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by blurbleblurble</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35203268</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:35203268</guid><pubDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 21:38:58 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Well I don&amp;#x27;t understand the nitroglycerin reference and of course &amp;quot;computationally universal&amp;quot; doesn&amp;#x27;t mean &amp;quot;sentient&amp;quot; but the point is when you add the external memory they (Flan-U-PaLM 540B to be specific) have been demonstrated to be capable of simulating a specific, well defined Turing machine without special training. There are some other papers out there arguing this from a theoretical angle too, but this is the one whose title I quoted: https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — HN submission</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35195489</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:submission:2301.04589:35195489</guid><pubDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 11:12:49 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Memory Augmented LLMs Are Computationally Universal&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;2 points; 0 discussion replies on HN. &lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and source history&lt;/a&gt;. A submission is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by famouswaffles</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35187059</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:35187059</guid><pubDate>Thu, 16 Mar 2023 19:28:45 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;In context learning is already implicit finetuning. https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.10559. It&amp;#x27;s very questionable to what extent continuous training is necessary past a threshold of intelligence. Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — HN submission</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35182229</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:submission:2301.04589:35182229</guid><pubDate>Thu, 16 Mar 2023 14:12:03 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Memory Augmented Large Language Models Are Computationally Universal&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1 point; 0 discussion replies on HN. &lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and source history&lt;/a&gt;. A submission is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by mad0</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35165737</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:35165737</guid><pubDate>Wed, 15 Mar 2023 09:23:30 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;It does to some degree. Some people have shown that you can prompt GPT to behave like shell or python interpreter. Then you can &amp;quot;execute&amp;quot; some statements, of course to some degree of saneness. However I&amp;#x27;m not sure if it does in this particular case where we ask it for explanation. Also see this paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.04589.pdf tldr if we equip LLM models with infinite memory it becomes Turing complete.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — HN submission</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34878669</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:submission:2301.04589:34878669</guid><pubDate>Tue, 21 Feb 2023 09:09:55 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Memory Augmented Large Language Models Are Computationally Universal&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;2 points; 1 discussion reply on HN. &lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and source history&lt;/a&gt;. A submission is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item><item><title>Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal — mentioned by blurbleblurble</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34878612</link><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:hackerpapers:mention:2301.04589:34878612</guid><pubDate>Tue, 21 Feb 2023 09:03:08 GMT</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;predicting words&amp;quot; part of the language models is a building block, but the actual applications being built around the LLMs are using that predictive ability in very dynamic ways along with external memory, feedback and sophisticated control methods to attenuate and channel their behavior. And anyhow: &amp;gt; Memory Augmented Large Language Models are Computationally Universal https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04589&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2301.04589/"&gt;Paper and discussion history&lt;/a&gt;. A mention is not an endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;</description><category>cs.CL</category></item></channel></rss>
