Scaling Insights Over Compute: A New Research Paradigm for AI Phenomena

ZimingLiu11 · x · 2026-08-12

The research team @MetaCircleAI proposes that AI is currently in its pre-Tycho stage (analogous to early Astronomy), where many phenomena remain hidden in logs or are never measured. The first step towards a "Science of AI" should be discovering more phenomena—creating the vocabulary for "learning mechanics."

The team argues this is a new scaling axis. In just one day, a small team of 3 people discovered 8 new phenomena they had never seen before. They advocate for scaling observations, phenomena, and insights, rather than just scaling compute.

Related event: MIT Teams Propose AI Paradigm Shift Towards Observation and Insight(2 posts)→

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