Temperature-driven inversion and nonlinear dynamics in ChatGPT-like AIs
Abstract
Increasing the temperature of an ordinary many-state system increases access to a wider range of states and hence increases its entropy. We find the opposite in ChatGPT-like AIs, even though raising the decoder temperature likewise increases access to a wider range of states (next-token choices). Across 12,000 continuations from 11 AIs, autoregressive feedback drives the long-time output population through an entropy maximum and into population inversion. The transition features frozen states, cycles, intermittency and noise-induced ordering. We present evidence of a hidden coordinate that acts as the state variable of an effective nonlinear map. Its trajectory average strongly predicts output repetition in separate test trajectories. ChatGPT-like AIs therefore behave not as `stochastic parrots', but as a new class of controllable nonlinear physical systems whose internal dynamics can be measured and perturbed.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2608.00939,
title = {Temperature-driven inversion and nonlinear dynamics in ChatGPT-like AIs},
author = {Neil F. Johnson and Frank Yingjie Huo and Bella Xinrui Li},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2608.00939},
year = {2026}
}