Humans are incredibly good at anthropomorphizing all manner of entities. Even very young children attribute human character and capacities to pets, stuffed animals, and inanimate objects. Adults attribute gender and related human characteristics to ships, cars, and favorite tools. It is thus not surprising that we have entered an era where the talk of artificial intelligence is increasingly pointing to AGI or even super human intelligence that is “just around the corner” or “over the next hill.” Are we really on the doorstep of AI that will have human capabilities or have we just entered the era of magical thinking?
Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor take on this issue in a paper where they ask us to consider AI as Normal Technology. For those who have been captivated or threatened by the promise of super intelligence they provide a necessary corrective at east for some. Others will continue to imagine that we are about to enter an era as magical as the introduction of the Segway.
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