A mirror facing a mirror creates the illusion of depth. A prediction machine directed towards itself creates the illusion of direction.

Chollet draws an analogy between visual recursion and self-referential AI systems, suggesting that just as mirrors facing each other create a false sense of infinite depth, a prediction machine analyzing its own outputs may create a misleading sense of purposeful direction or intelligence. The tweet likely argues that recursive self-application in AI systems can produce illusory properties that don't represent genuine understanding or goal-directedness.

Source: Francois Chollet (X) | 2026-06-22