'No emergent properties, it's all in the data': the bitter lesson debate reignites

KyleMorgenstein · x · 2026-09-14

In a quoted post, aliteracy argues for 'another bitter lesson: there are no emergent properties, it's all in the data' — and adds that what actually makes modern LLMs work isn't aligned with Sutton's original bitter lesson (scale of compute and learning), but the data itself. A pointed take in the ongoing debate over whether emergent abilities are real.

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