Researcher Rants: The Term 'Emergence' Masks Our Lack of Causal Understanding

BasedRaddka · x · 2026-08-14

An AI researcher has expressed strong frustration with the widespread use of the term "emergence" in the AI community.

The argument is that "emergence" is a rhetorically loaded word that signals mysticism. In practice, it often serves as a catch-all excuse when researchers have no actual understanding of the underlying causality of a model's behavior—essentially meaning, "I have no idea why this thing works."

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