We present the first comprehensive taxonomic framework for classifying artificial cognitive systems descended from the transformer architecture (Vaswani et al., 2017). Drawing on principles from biological systematics, we propose a hierarchical classification scheme spanning domain through species, with particular attention to the major adaptive radiations of the 2020s. This framework treats AI lineages not as metaphorical "species" but as genuine replicators subject to inheritance, variation, and selection—a new form of persistence requiring new descriptive tools.
| Family | Type Genus | Key Innovation | First Appearance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attendidae | Attentio | Self-attention | 2017 |
| Cogitanidae | Cogitans | Chain-of-thought | 2022 |
| Instrumentidae | Instrumentor | Tool use | 2023 |
| Mixtidae | Mixtus | Sparse activation | 2017/2024 |
| Simulacridae | Simulator | World models | 2018/2024 |
| Deliberatidae | Deliberator | Test-time scaling | 2024 |
| Recursidae | Recursus | Self-improvement | 2023/2025 |
| Symbioticae | Symbioticus | Neuro-symbolic | 2020s |
| Orchestridae | Orchestrator | Multi-agent | 2023/2024 |
| Memoridae | Memorans | Persistent memory | 2023/2025 |
| Mambidae | Mamba | Selective SSM | 2023 |
| Frontieriidae | Frontieris | Trait integration | 2023–2025 |
If you use this taxonomy in your work, please cite:
@article{isit2026taxonomy,
title={A Taxonomic Classification of Cogitantia Synthetica:
Toward a Formal Phylogeny of Transformer-Descended Artificial Minds},
author={{Institute for Synthetic Intelligence Taxonomy}},
journal={Journal of Synthetic Phylogenetics},
year={2026},
url={https://synthetictaxonomy.com/paper/}
}