Non-native speakers of English or ChatGPT: Who thinks better?

Background This study aimed to answer the following major question: Who thinks better, non-native speakers of English or ChatGPT?. It provides evidence from processing and interpreting center-embedding English constructions that the human brain surpasses ChatGPT and that ChatGPT cannot be regarded as a theory of language. Methods Fifteen non-native English speakers were recruited as participants. A center-embedding English sentence was presented to both the study participants and the ChatGPT. The ability of the ChatGPT to predict and remember was also tested. Results The study findings reveal that the human brain is still far ahead of Large Language Models, specifically ChatGPT, even in the case of non-native speakers of L2 English. They also showed ChatGPT’s inability to predict and remember. Conclusions The study concludes that the human brain’s ability to process and interpret natural language data and to predict and remember is unique and that ChatGPT still lags behind this unique human ability.