Key points

“Emergent abilities” in AI are illusions of scale, not sparks of intelligence.

Bigger models switch from word order tactics to more complex patterns of meaning.

These tactic changes are math reorganizing, not minds awakening.

A phrase I've often clung to regarding artificial intelligence is one that is also cloaked in a bit of techno-mystery. And I bet you've heard it as part of the lexicon of technology and imagination : "emergent abilities." It's common to hear that large language models (LLMs) have these curious “emergent” behaviors that are often coupled with linguistic partners like scaling and complexity. And yes, I'm guilty too.

In AI research, this phrase first took off after a 2022 paper that described how abilities seem to appear suddenly as models scale and

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