When people ask me what the phrase "artificial intelligence" means, my short answer is, it means "venture capitalists, give me some money".
But OUP asked me for a longer answer, given here and summarized in the section headings:
@emilymbender what if you run an open source AI locally on your machine? Then it wouldn’t centralise power. Right?
@emilymbender@dair-community.social Mind sending me a pdf? My university's shib is misbehaving.
@emilymbender A fascinating paper, which I need to read again more slowly to fully appreciate its theses.
How can I respond to your article without appearing to "mansplain"? (FWIW, I've been adjacent to the "AI" R&D field for decades, and have worked on several attempts to product-ize research prototypes, in machine learning, natural languages processing, deductive databases; but I'm far from being an expert in any of these (although I've worked with experts), let alone something as general as "AI", and my non-expertise will no doubt show as "mansplaining".)
@emilymbender "Shift accountability" is always the first thing any psychopath notices about science.
@emilymbender I find myself wondering, can we create AI that enhances human labour, that strengthens accountability, that decentralises power? Are @DAIR or anyone else you know working on that? And if so, how can I get involved?
when people ask me what AI means, I say
A senior PhD with some programming skills said: thanks to AI, I was able to do in a few hours what normally takes a week
or
Good programmer: I'm not that strong in python, so when I need a python "snippet" I find AI saves me a lot of time
or
Senior and IMO very good engineer overseeing a staff of 25 people:
If you don't have AI skills, or are unwilling to learn, we are not gonna hire you - and that is not next year, it is today
or
65 yro female neighbor, college educated: I use AI all the time, it is so helpful
shrugs
@emilymbender Thank you for continuing to clear up our understanding of the expression "AI", and esp. in important reference sources like OUP. I find I often have to reach for very authoritative sources to back up perspectives that goes against the mainstream infatuation with chatbots.
@emilymbender
As the old joke goes:
- If you're broke, you do statistics.
- If you have a research grant, you do machine learning.
- If you're a venture capitalist, you do #AI.
And given how the term “AI” has inflated like a third-world currency – what we have no does not merit the term, it's just “generative models” – one may add:
- If you're a Silicon Valley startup, you do #AGI.
@emilymbender Artificial data collection. Intelligence is data collection in English. So is the CIA not a very smart US agency, but the data collection agency for the US. Intelligenz is in German beyond that. Therefore AI is not smart.
@emilymbender don't forget: AI is automated bias and discrimination for usual or unusual reasons.
@emilymbender been looking forward to this thank you for sharing
Preprint available from my publications page:
@emilymbender This looks great. I am eager to read your preprint, but am getting a 404 for this URL:
https://faculty.washington.edu/ebender/papers/Bender-AI-2026.pdf
@aarbrk Should be fixed now. Please try again.
@emilymbender All better! Thanks so much.
@emilymbender
Hide, devalue and steal human labour.
@jlperuyero My dude, I am literally posting the encyclopedia entry that I wrote on this topic -- each of those headings is expanded. And yet, you feel the need to correct what I am saying? I'd be astonished at the hubris but then I remember this is Mansplainodon, so yeah.
@emilymbender
I've been following you for some time, and that should be a hint on my according with your work.
But if you take a minimal comment, intending only agreement with your message, as mansplaining, maybe you'll find useful adding some "NO INTERACTING PLEASE" banner to your account.
So sad. So many barriers, trenches, walls and barbed wires set up between real people. No wonder more and more are turning towards IA.
