Glossary · term

Ghosts not animals

A metaphor: models are not evolved organisms (like humans) but "summoned ghosts" — entities optimized for entirely different pressures (text imitation, rewards for puzzles, human preferences on the arena). Hence their "jagged intelligence" and counterintuitive behaviors.

Karpathy2025Wave 1 · 2023Maturity: 1/5

Maturity rationale

Ghosts not animals — metaphor from X 2025, in circulation

References

Author: Andrej Karpathy