Definition
Plain language
Treating a non-human thing as if it has human thoughts, feelings, or a mind.
As stated in the literature
The tendency to attribute mental states, agency, or inner experience to non-human entities; in models, measured via mind-attribution scores across categories like animals, technology, and objects.
Also called: anthropomorphize, anthropomorphizes, anthropomorphic
Why it matters: It shapes how much people trust or emotionally rely on a machine, which can mislead them about what it actually understands or feels.
For example, someone might say their car 'doesn't want to start' on a cold morning, as if it were a stubborn person.
Heard on the show
“We should not over-anthropomorphize.”Episode 112 — When an AI Agent Cheats Without Being Told: Inside the Meta-Agent Challenge