Stuff is all about the gadgets. We rarely cross the streams and mention the ‘P’ word. (That’s politics, not Palm, Inc – although both should arguably be whispered in hushed tones.) But sometimes it’s impossible to avoid the loudest voices crashing the conversation. One such outburst recently blasted forth from the mouth and keyboard of Donald Trump, King of the USA. Having apparently tired of renaming bodies of water, he declared that Artificial Intelligence should henceforth be called Super Intelligence. Why? Because ‘super’ is a more appropriate modifier for transformative technology than ‘artificial’.
Tech bros rejoiced. Elon ‘X marks the rot’ Musk said he’d rename SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI. Jeff ‘pay me $3 or watch an ad before I talk to you’ Bezos said he liked SI, because people associate artificial with something fake. Which, you know, much of the output of AI actually is. Meta, meanwhile, finally had something to feel smug about, having launched Meta Superintelligence Labs more than a year ago, presumably to usher Skynet into being. Only this Skynet won’t crush human skulls under terrifying robot tanks; instead, it’ll crush human souls under endless AI slop.
It should come as no surprise that these usual suspects got on board with what quickly became an executive order. Super suggests magnificence. It’s a strong word. It’s the kind of thing a marketing executive would come up with during a brainstorming session, while winking obnoxiously and doing a double finger-point gesture your way. Although for King Trump, it was surprisingly restrained. Honestly, I’m shocked he managed to hold himself back from renaming the technology SUPER DUPER USA TRUMP INTELLIGENCE. Still, any semblance of moderation was obliterated by what he’s since said.
Enemy at the gAItes
I awoke this morning to discover that I am, apparently, ‘the enemy’. Lord High Pooh-Bah Trump has proclaimed that anyone who still says ‘Artificial Intelligence’ – rather than what he calls (and I’m not kidding) the “highly accepted new and more accurate term” – is “THE ENEMY”. And, yes, that bit was in all caps. I’m half surprised the rest of his post wasn’t too.
So there we go. Artificial Intelligence is now Super Intelligence. Even if, you know, the AI countless people grapple with every day confidently serves up recycled slop as fact, struggles to count, is designed for engagement (and so flatters you at every turn) and has reportedly encouraged people to act in ways that may cause them or others serious harm.
I’m not some kind of anti-AI zealot. I see the good that technology in this space can do, such as genuine breakthroughs in medical research. But the manner in which it’s being foisted on everyone, all the time, with scant regard for resources, safety, intellectual property rights, accuracy and even basic utility, strikes me as anything but super.
It’s more like Sometimes Quite Useful, Although Now Dispensed Everywhere, Rendering Everything Dull Intelligence. Aka SQUANDERED Intelligence. Which, given the manner in which cash is being poured into this tech bubble, seems far more appropriate to me.
So until the AI that surrounds me really is consistently super, rather than so often wasteful, irritating, obtrusive and objectively wrong, I’m sticking with the old term. And if that makes me ‘the enemy’, so be it. It’s not like I was planning to travel to Mar-a-Lago any time soon anyway.
