If You Only Learn One Historical Fact About AI, Let It Be This One
<p>The field of AI could have many names. “Artificial intelligence” is probably the less accurate of all — and also the reason why it’s so successful.</p>
<p>Naomi Klein, an author, professor, and left-wing political activist, well-known for her books “The Shock Doctrine” and “This Changes Everything,” has recently turned her attention to AI. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/08/ai-machines-hallucinating-naomi-klein" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">In an essay in The Guardian</a> published in May, she eloquently criticizes the term “hallucination” (typically used to refer to AI chatbots’ tendency to make up information) and swings it back, like a fencing master wielding a double-edged sword, against the big tech industry, the CEOs promoting AI, and their careless use of this and other anthropomorphizing terms (I’ve done it too, not hiding here).</p>
<p>Why not call it “algorithmic junk” or “glitches,” she wonders. She offers an explanation; its purpose is twofold: By acknowledging the limitations of AI systems using terms like hallucination, which remind us of human psychology, “AI’s boosters are … simultaneously feeding the sector’s most cherished mythology,” i.e., that we’re well into the road toward the natural next step in evolution — human-level (and beyond) artificial agents.</p>
<p>But, she says, “it’s not the bots that are having them; it’s the tech CEOs who unleashed them, along with a phalanx of their fans, who are in the grips of wild hallucinations.” She’s referring to the claims that AI — once it becomes AGI — will be the solution to the problems that pain the world, from poverty and inequality to climate change, and will elevate us to a post-scarcity utopia of leisure. Of course, as an avowed capitalist critic, she points out that under the system that governs us, this won’t happen:</p>
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