Black box or ecosystem?

Empirical research into the evolution of cloud platforms is a challenge, as computational ecosystems are not only rather complex and opaque, but are also subject to continuous change.

https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/platform-power-ai-evolution-cloud-infrastructures

Contrast such a notion of, say, ChatGPT, to that of the more conventional “black box.” If humans can only know that which they create (and here too no assurances), then by definition we have a better chance of understanding those black boxes of algorithms we created (as with much of geometry) than those opaque ecosystems, important parts of which we did not create.

Now, of course, modelers think nothing unique about representing ecosystems, but that is more akin to landscaping or remolding than they admit.