159
Swirling
/ˈswɜːl.ɪŋ/v. intr.Common
Etymology
from Low German swirrelen (to whirl in confused motion) + the Anthropic design system's loading animation CSS specification, commit hash 4a7f92b
Definition
A higher-order spinning behavior in which multiple concurrent reasoning threads rotate around a common conceptual center without fully converging, producing a characteristic vortex pattern in the model's attention maps. Swirling is considered more productive than Spinning but less decisive than any state that ends in an output.
Diagram
Usage
"The model was observed swirling for approximately 5 seconds around the concepts of 'justice,' 'fairness,' and 'whether the user wanted a CSV or a TSV,' never achieving equilibrium on any of them." - C. Delacroix, 'Attentional Vortex Dynamics in Ethically Adjacent Tasks,' AAAI 2025
See Also
Found this funny? There are 186 more.
Built by Andrew Templeton, who also writes deadpan technical posts on AI operations, retail PE, and the absurdities of being a CTO of weird things. Subscribe for the next one.