Definition
Plain language
When a revealing detail gets buried among lots of unrelated information, so it carries less weight.
As stated in the literature
Reduction in the influence of a salient context feature as irrelevant context is added; here, giving the agent the full inbox rather than a two-email cap shrank the wealth-driven price gap.
Also called: dilute, diluted, diluting
Why it matters: It means how much context you hand an agent changes how strongly it reacts to any single revealing detail, so results measured on tidy test inputs can overstate or understate what happens with a real, messy inbox.
For example, an assistant shown just two emails that hint at a high salary raises its price suggestions sharply, but shown a hundred emails about parking permits and birthday parties, that same hint barely moves the recommendation.
Heard on the show
“… the context fills up with the agent's own past actions, the signal of what still needs doing gets diluted by the noise of what's already been claimed. …”Episode 017 — When the Agent Grades Its Own Homework: A Brutal New Benchmark for AI Workers