I don't think "humans/animals learn faster" holds. LLMs learn new things on the spot, you just explain it in the prompt and give an example or two.
A recent paper tested both linguists and LLMs at learning a language with less than 200 speakers and therefore virtually no presence on the web. All from a few pages of explanations. The LLMs come close to humans.
Another example is the ARC-AGI benchmark, where the model has to learn from a few examples to derive the rule. AI models are closing the gap to human level, they are around 55% while humans are at 80%. These tests were specifically designed to be hard for models and easy for humans.
Besides these examples of fast learning, I think the other argument about humans benefiting from evolution is also essential here. Similarly, we can't beat AlphaZero at Go, as it evolved its own Go culture and plays better than us. Evolution is powerful.
A recent paper tested both linguists and LLMs at learning a language with less than 200 speakers and therefore virtually no presence on the web. All from a few pages of explanations. The LLMs come close to humans.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.16575
Another example is the ARC-AGI benchmark, where the model has to learn from a few examples to derive the rule. AI models are closing the gap to human level, they are around 55% while humans are at 80%. These tests were specifically designed to be hard for models and easy for humans.
Besides these examples of fast learning, I think the other argument about humans benefiting from evolution is also essential here. Similarly, we can't beat AlphaZero at Go, as it evolved its own Go culture and plays better than us. Evolution is powerful.