Silicon Valley’s Strange New Dialect
This article explores how Silicon Valley professionals are increasingly using AI-related terminology to describe human behaviors and cognitive processes. It examines the psychological implications of this 'modelmorphism' in everyday language.
Why it matters
Reflects the deep cultural integration of AI into the professional and personal lives of tech workers.
Did you mix something up? Maybe you’re just “hallucinating.”
August 20, 2026, 5:38 PM ET Share Save Silicon Valley has long had its own dialect. Venture capitalists are always talking about the value of being “high agency” and making “orthogonal bets.” But lately, tech vernacular has taken a peculiar turn—people have started describing themselves as if they were chatbots. If you misspeak, maybe you’re “ hallucinating .” Don’t know the answer to a question? That’s because it’s not in your “training data.” Feeling forgetful? Perhaps you have a case of “ context rot ,” a phrase that refers to the degradation of a bot’s responses over a long conversation. “I’ve been telling my wife I have context rot for months,” Conor Bronsdon, the host of an AI-focused podcast, told me.
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