Ask HN: Is "AI" a misnomer?
I always kinda thought "AI" was a misnomer, because it is not intelligent and it is maybe not artificial. Yes, I know, this is linguistics and debatable and pedantic but also today is a Saturday. Plus, hey, who knows, maybe what we call things on a day-to-day basis actually matters because it affects the way we view them in our minds, which dictates how we interact with them and even [sometimes] the rest of the world.
But if it is "artificial" intelligence then it is not natural intelligence, like some of us claim to have. Natural intelligence is another ‘one of those ones’ that is difficult to define, but I relate it to learning and curiosity and I’m tired so I’m not sure what else (self awareness?). Also, what is ML really? Can an M really L? Like in the same sense that you and I can? Also, I feel Neural Nets is a huge misnomer, unless they are made from actual living biological neurons. Has this happened yet? I don’t know, and I am curious if someone here has the answer. Sometimes I’m afraid for the future, so I am not going to look it up.
And as counterfactual as it may be to ask “What is it like to be a bat” I still feel that a bat would have more intelligence than say an ant. (This may have been stated in the paper, but I forget. I only read it a half dozen times about twenty years ago.)
I guess maybe I was putting too much emphasis on the Intelligent part and not enough on the Artificial part. But then after thinking about it for too many hours, maybe I wasn’t.
What say you, HN?