What’s a common “fact” that’s spread around that’s actually not true and pisses you off that too many people believe it?

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Artificial intelligence is a term used in computer science

    Arguing that because nerds appropriated an original term does not mean that we have to change the meaning of the original term…

    I don’t look out my “transpart glass” I look out my windows. Even tho that’s the name of an operating system. If I say I grok something, it means I understand like Heinlen intended, not that I asked a racist AI about it.

    “Artificial Intelligence” and all sorts of things computer nerds are trying to claim they invented have existed in theory at least as far back as Rome.

    So “the problem” is you first heard about it in the context of chatbots, so now you want to insist that is the only meaning the phrase has ever represented and everyone else needs to change to accomdoate you.

    The problem isn’t people are using the phrase wrong, the problem is you don’t know what it means except in a very narrow context.

    None of any of this shit is new, people are just ignorant.

    It’s like when I was a kid and watched pro-wrestling, I thought I was cool and original, because I didn’t know the media that they were blatantly ripping off of.

    That’s where you are at right now with Artificial Intelligence, you only know the version the grifters have appropriated.

    Pre-emptive edit:

    I’m not saying chatbots are AI, I’m saying the definition that calls them AI is incorrect because grifters just changed it to fit what they were doing, for money.

    • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
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      5 days ago

      You say that like computer scientists in the 1950s who invented the concept of AI stole it from science fiction writers instead of the other way around.

    • Zacryon@feddit.org
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      3 days ago

      So “the problem” is you first heard about it in the context of chatbots, so now you want to insist that is the only meaning the phrase has ever represented and everyone else needs to change to accomdoate you.

      No, it’s a term used in science and engineering to categorize a bunch of algorithms, methods, and models that is being misunderstood by many people in the first place and has existed well before the first chatbots.
      Such misconceptions are not unusual, which is often a result of using scientific terminology from a colloquial point of view. Think of the term “theory” for another example.

      I’m not saying chatbots are AI, I’m saying the definition that calls them AI is incorrect because grifters just changed it to fit what they were doing, for money.

      I disagree with the money part. You are now throwing scIentists and engineers into one pot with those who exploit this term for marketing purposes alone.
      But I agree that the “intelligence” part is difficult to justify.

      I understand that it is an intuitive choice for labelling methods that can mimick or outperform “natural intelligence” (people, birds, ants, fungi, bacteria, …) on tasks that involve some form of information processing. The “artificial” part underlines that these methods are usually well… not found in nature (although often inspired from) but manufactured, man-made.

      From my point of view the issue really begins at the “intelligence” part. We throw this word around as if it was something unique to humans. Yet, there exists no solid definition of what the fuck ‘intellgience’ even is. I challenge you to think about an airtight definition of ‘intelligence’. If we have a solid definition for that, we can think about how we might carry that over to what we currently call artificial intelligence and may consider relabeling if necessary.

      Currently, I lack an alternative. And for that reason I stick with AI as a commonly accepted working label.

    • theherk@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      First, that actually is how language works. Meaning is given to words by consensus and consensus alone. Generally, since it came to widespread usage in the modern lexicon it means exactly as they described.

      Second, you say it was appropriated. Okay, from what?