Fade Point
NOUN · AI PROVENANCE
The fade point is the exact node in an AI provenance chain where solid evidence gives way to assumption — formally, the first node on a path where grounding drops to zero under weakest-link propagation. A computed coordinate, not a judgment call. Everything upstream of the fade point can be checked. Everything downstream is being taken on faith.
In plain language
Read any long report carefully and there is a sentence — one specific sentence — where the sourcing quietly stops and the author starts coasting on momentum. AI outputs have that sentence too; they just never mark it. The fade point is that spot, made visible: the first node where the chain's grounding gives out.
It's the single most diagnostic place to look in any Thread review. Not the strongest node, not the weakest — the transition. Where an output fades tells you more about how much to trust it than how confident it sounds ever will.
See it live
Thread TT-0001 — TrustThread's own project as a public Thread — fades at node A5: a claim from our own materials still missing its primary source, marked in red, ringed in public.
Inspect the fade point in Thread TT-0001 →Related terms
TERM COINED BY TRUSTTHREAD · FIRST PUBLISHED 2026-07-12 · DEFINITION V1 · THIS PAGE IS THE CANONICAL SOURCE