Position: Stop Anthropomorphizing Intermediate Tokens as Reasoning/Thinking Trac
Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence arXiv:2504.09762 (cs) [Submitted on 14 Apr 2025 (v1), last revised 9 Jun 2026 (this version, v4)] Title:Position: Stop Anthropomorphizing Intermediate Tokens as Reasoning/Thinking Traces! In this position paper, we present evidence that this anthropomorphization isn't a harmless metaphor, and instead is quite dangerous -- it confuses the nature of these models and how to use them effectively, and leads to questionable research. We call on the community to avoid such anthropomorphization of intermediate tokens.
- ▪Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence arXiv:2504.09762 (cs) [Submitted on 14 Apr 2025 (v1), last revised 9 Jun 2026 (this version, v4)] Title:Position: Stop Anthropomorphizing Intermediate Tokens as Reasoning/Thinking Traces!
- ▪In this position paper, we present evidence that this anthropomorphization isn't a harmless metaphor, and instead is quite dangerous -- it confuses the nature of these models and how to use them effectively, and leads to questionable resear
- ▪We call on the community to avoid such anthropomorphization of intermediate tokens.
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| Original publisher | arXiv.org |
| Canonical URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.09762 |
| Publication time | Fri, 26 Jun 2026 06:46:56 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-06-26T07:07:29.748Z |
| Last seen | 2026-06-26T07:07:29.748Z |
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| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
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| Cluster | br4v-O305YxJ |
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| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence arXiv:2504.09762 (cs) [Submitted on 14 Apr 2025 (v1), last revised 9 Jun 2026 (this version, v4)] Title:Position: Stop Anthropomorphizing Intermediate Tokens as Reasoning/Thinking Traces! Authors:Subbarao Kambhampati, Karthik Valmeekam, Siddhant Bhambri, Vardhan Palod, Lucas Saldyt, Kaya Stechly, Soumya Rani Samineni, Durgesh Kalwar, Upasana Biswas View a PDF of the paper titled Position: Stop Anthropomorphizing Intermediate Tokens as Reasoning/Thinking Traces!, by Subbarao Kambhampati and 8 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Intermediate token generation (ITG), where a model produces output before the solution, has become a standard method to improve the performance of language models on reasoning tasks.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at arXiv.org.
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