Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it?
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Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
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Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
@emilymbender that’s super helpful, thanks!
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Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
@emilymbender This is a marvellous resource, thank you! When considering a term that is more correct, do you look at how likely it is that a layperson would understand a word? I know the word "probabilistic" because I listen to too many podcasts and it comes up in my nerdy interests a lot, but I'm not sure how many other people would understand the word. I wonder if changing the tense would make it more approachable: "probability automation" or maybe even "probability system".
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Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
@emilymbender at my last company, they started developing multiple "AI agents" for different business processes. Not only did they give each system a human name, but they gave it a persona and a human backstory. It felt very uncomfortable and was one of the reasons that I left.
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@emilymbender also, 100% re misleading metaphors.
i blame von neumann.
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Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
@emilymbender
I have used "predictive text on steroids" with people I know and I dont think alot of average folx will know the term probablistic.
How far off am I in using "predictive text on steroids" knowing that these machines are using algorithms and calculations and data/data subsets in a way that does go way beyond that?
Any better/every day terms that average folx using these tools might understand? -
@emilymbender This is a marvellous resource, thank you! When considering a term that is more correct, do you look at how likely it is that a layperson would understand a word? I know the word "probabilistic" because I listen to too many podcasts and it comes up in my nerdy interests a lot, but I'm not sure how many other people would understand the word. I wonder if changing the tense would make it more approachable: "probability automation" or maybe even "probability system".
@wordsmith @emilymbender "probability calculator"?
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@wordsmith @emilymbender "probability calculator"?
@JamesWidman ooh good one. Although I was about to type "everyone can immediately visualise a calculator" but that's probably an outdated bias these days (yes I can visualise a Zip Drive).
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@emilymbender
I have used "predictive text on steroids" with people I know and I dont think alot of average folx will know the term probablistic.
How far off am I in using "predictive text on steroids" knowing that these machines are using algorithms and calculations and data/data subsets in a way that does go way beyond that?
Any better/every day terms that average folx using these tools might understand?@Petesmom @emilymbender You're not wrong, but maybe "extended predictive text" instead of "on steroids" because on steroids refers to how organic creature behaviour changes when it's given extra hormones.
But that's neither here nor there
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Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
@emilymbender I've seen and used "spicy autocomplete" for "LLM"
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Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
@emilymbender also things like "predictive [text] slot-machine" have come up
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@Petesmom @emilymbender You're not wrong, but maybe "extended predictive text" instead of "on steroids" because on steroids refers to how organic creature behaviour changes when it's given extra hormones.
But that's neither here nor there
@Mimesatwork @Petesmom @emilymbender
'Enhanced'
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@Mimesatwork @Petesmom @emilymbender
It's a necessary, but also difficult uphill battle. After all, a main driver in developing AI is to get computers to do things that, so far, only humans were able to do, either as a challenge or to save on personnel expenditures. Not surprising then if people use the same words to describe what the computer does as what the human would do that they replace.
Like something as basic as 'memory', rather than the more neutral 'storage'. Or in more modern times 'query', i.e., asking questions from the computer, rather than some more neutral term. 'Query' is accepted as describing what you do with an SQL data base, predating AI...
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@emilymbender wait til we give human names to robots, like pets
@iamnotU @emilymbender We did in many works of scifi though

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@Mimesatwork @Petesmom @emilymbender
It's a necessary, but also difficult uphill battle. After all, a main driver in developing AI is to get computers to do things that, so far, only humans were able to do, either as a challenge or to save on personnel expenditures. Not surprising then if people use the same words to describe what the computer does as what the human would do that they replace.
Like something as basic as 'memory', rather than the more neutral 'storage'. Or in more modern times 'query', i.e., asking questions from the computer, rather than some more neutral term. 'Query' is accepted as describing what you do with an SQL data base, predating AI...
@Mimesatwork @Petesmom @emilymbender
Some ideas. For AI in general, we could use 'corpus-based generation', like language, image, action, speech generation. What is characteristic for current AI is how they are built using these large bodies of (often stolen) 'stuff', typically from the Internet.
I have a problem with 'undesirable output' for hallucination. Too vague for me. The undesirability is invariably a failure to be factually correct, which is what users expect from AI, an expectation that is both unreasonable and unwise for a language tool - but also real. Let's make that explicit: a 'factuality violation'.
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Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
@emilymbender @mastodonmigration I have yet to come across a good use case for “AI” for me personally. What they tout as the results of AI has been around since the late 60s. Back then it was called machine learning. Give me a huge data set with a narrow problem and it’s great! Like the examples of finding ancient Maya cities in the jungles of middle America. Yes back then you had to learn LISP to query it
️ Even hardware acceleration is not new, remember the Symbolics machines of the early 90s? -
J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
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@emilymbender @mastodonmigration I have yet to come across a good use case for “AI” for me personally. What they tout as the results of AI has been around since the late 60s. Back then it was called machine learning. Give me a huge data set with a narrow problem and it’s great! Like the examples of finding ancient Maya cities in the jungles of middle America. Yes back then you had to learn LISP to query it
️ Even hardware acceleration is not new, remember the Symbolics machines of the early 90s?@emilymbender @mastodonmigration The only things that’s new is the natural language interface. And a vastly larger more general dataset to play with, which will / is caus(e/ing) issues as it moves away from the narrow problem and large but specific dataset. Just my 2p.
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Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
@emilymbender thank you very, very, very much for this article. So much needed!
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Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
@emilymbender I love this, thank you so much for sharing. Reminds me of how Anthropic talks about AI models as if they have feelings and as if they can live or die.
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Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
Too generous by half @emilymbender
Stochastic parrot -not- "probabilistic automation" in ley use probabilistic is as opaque as stochastic, but everyone knows parrots don't understand the language they mimic.
Bullshit -in stead of- "hallucination" and "model mistakes" because if it's an response made without the intent to be correct it is by definition bullshit.