It is interpolation but that is what human thinking is as well. Interpolation is so broad it can cover agi conceptually.

But I get it, the interpolation you’re talking about is limited. But I think you missed this insight: human interpolation is limited too. In the short term everything we do is simply recombination of ideas as you put it.

But that’s the short term. In the long term we do things that are much greater. But I think this is just an aggregation of small changes. Change the words in a poem 5000 times: have the LLM do the same task 5000 times. Let it pick a random word. The result is wholly original. And I think in the end this what human cognition is as well.