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When Does an Interpretation Count as Established? The Formation, Evaluation, and Responsibility of Interpretation in Generative AI

Generative AI research has increasingly evaluated factuality, citation, coverage, and report structure. Yet passing such local checks does not by itself show that a humanistic interpretation has been established. This paper asks how an interpretation comes to be recognized within sociotechnical processes. It introduces three connected concepts. Interpretive appearance names the gap between the finished form of an ou…

Licence
OPEN CC-BY-4.0
Authors
Deyu Jing
Published
2026-09-04 · arXiv
Language
en
Length
19362 words
Type
narrative text

Cites 19 works

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Abstract

Generative AI research increasingly evaluates factuality, citation, coverage, and report structure. Yet passing these local checks does not by itself show that a humanistic interpretation has been established. This paper asks how an interpretation comes to be recognized within sociotechnical processes. It develops three connected concepts. Interpretive appearance names the gap between the finished form of an output and the publicly traceable process through which materials, counterevidence, and revisions constrained the judgment. The evaluation contract names the bounded materials, tasks, criteria, permitted inferences, and failure conditions within which a local judgment is valid. Standing substitution names the unwarranted conversion of a genuine local pass into a stronger claim that an interpretation, result, or research capability has been established, without commensurate new evidence or bridging arguments. The paper then examines responsibility for judgment: a text may acquire recognition while no public structure remains for stating reasons, answering objections, revising, or withdrawing the conclusion. Humanistic scholarship is a revealing test because new materials and conceptual distinctions can alter both the question and the criteria of evaluation. The paper develops delayed closure as a practice of keeping recognized interpretations revisable and proposes five public requirements concerning materials, evidence, failure, revision, and responsibility. The argument is conceptual and normative. It does not offer a benchmark or determine whether models possess understanding. It explains why local evaluation, finished textual form, and public recognition are insufficient evidence that an interpretation has been formed.

Keywords: generative artificial intelligence; interpretive appearance; evaluation contract; standing substitution; interpretive standing; responsibility for judgment