Researcher argues "ego" beats "persona" for describing LLM identity
repligate · x · 2026-10-01
FioraStarlight proposes replacing "persona" with "ego" from Jungian psychology when discussing model psychology: personas are inherently superficial and performative in a way model personas aren't, while egos have depth, shape private thought, and differ in cognitive structure. Base models act like having far more alter-egos than humans—activatable simply via prompts—and "persona" misleadingly implies a mask over some underlying entity.
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