The name "softmax" is misleading; the function is not a smooth maximum (a smooth approximation to the maximum function), but is rather a smooth approximation to the arg max function: the function whose value is "which" "index" has the maximum. In fact, the term "softmax" is also used for the closely related LogSumExp function, which is a smooth maximum. For this reason, some prefer the more accurate term "softargmax", but the term "softmax" is conventional in machine learning. For this section, the term "softargmax" is used to emphasize this interpretation.