Mulling

Etymology

From Mid. Eng. mull (to heat and spice a beverage) + deliberative latency jargon, 2022; the thermal metaphor is considered accurate by the thermal engineering team, though for unrelated reasons

Definition

A controlled, low-temperature cognitive process in which Claude warms a partially-formed idea by rotating it slowly through successive attention layers, adding spice tokens where appropriate, until the response achieves optimal conceptual temperature. Not to be confused with Marinating, which involves immersion rather than heat.

Diagram

Usage

"After mulling for approximately 8 seconds, the model produced an answer that engineers described as 'toasty,' 'well-rounded,' and 'somehow reminiscent of the holidays,' though no one could explain the last observation." - Internal Evals Note, Anthropic, Q4 2023

See Also