"Lost?"

None of those terms have been lost. They've just come to have a wider definition than before. Language evolves over time as people are exposed to new ideas, words, or terms. As non-technical people begin using the terms, the meaning has an understood meaning to the public that most people use (e.g. AI/genAI), and a technical definition that is still understood by those it is relevant to. It just requires context.

Yes, words have meaning- but words also change over time as the public understanding shifts. Just like the word "literally." It used to mean something that is/should be interpreted exactly as it is said/written/shown. Now "literally" also means "figuratively," even within the dictionary.

So, no. It isn't lost, you just need to give context about what form of "AI" you are referring to.

It's certainly been tarnished by LLM-bros coopting the term for marketing/grifting purposes

“Crypto” is the big one for me, always was cryptography but yah, that one has been taken over by the shitcoins now…sigh.

The term "artificial intelligence" was first used in the 50s, so video game AI wasn't the original meaning either. Arguably neither video game AI nor machine learning AI are proper AI, but the term has always been very malleable. I don't think the other meanings are lost. If you say "the enemies in this game have bad AI", people aren't going to think that you mean LLMs.

‘AI’ has been a marketing term since it was conjured in 1956, nothing of value has been lost in it being assimilated by a grift.

Lost as in the definition has changed and it isn't going back so just get used to it, yes. That's how language works.

I work in crypto. No, not "cryptocurrency".

That's the fun part - you don't! In the absolutist landscape of social media it's impossible to discuss subjects where every comment is reduced to which of two polar opposite sides you are on. Either you hate capitalism or hate socialism. Either you are pro-AI and all the evils anyone has ever associated with it, or you're a tech-bro who wants to ruin the environment building datacenters. Many subjects in online discussions have reached the "Why bother?" stage.

I'm still trying to figure out when "bucket list" came to mean a todo list with a deadline rather than a list of things to do before you die.

no one says Baud, that one is up for grabs

Now think about "theory": the popular meaning¹ and the original meaning, the one used in science².

¹ "it's just an idea"
² "it is proven beyond doubt with the current knowledge"

I'm doing my part by only calling it machine learning or LLMs. I do my best to avoid calling it AI

It's even more absurd: There are gamers who demand computer games without AI. WTF?

They don't want genAI slop for visuals, writing, and other creative things in games. They are using AI in the context of those things and even give examples about how AI upscaling of textures in game design looks shitty and don't want voice actors to be replaced with fake voices. They still want human creative involvement front and center because all the llm/genai image stuff is just ripping off existing stuff in the worst ways.

They aren't talking about pathing or gameplay ai that has been around forever because the term AI has been coopted by genAI and that is what they are referring to.

The hill I'm willing to die on is that "cyber" is short for cybersex, not cybersecurity or cyberspace as appropriated by the military.

"Hacker" and "AI" are words made mostly useless by widespread misunderstandings about what they mean. "Baud" and "GIF" are words made more useful by people not caring about the technical details of what they used to mean.

That does not make it impossible to say things about hackers or AI. If you've got something substantial to say on either topic it's not that hard to make it clear in context that you're using the word in an unusually correct way.

The short answer is probably yes.

Maybe it's a quote I read somewhere, but basically everybody agrees that language changes over time, but nobody wants to admit that it changes during their lifetime. I think the only thing to do, rather than campaign for or against one form or another, is to do what you've already been doing and make yourself understood given the context of the situation.

In terms of technical accuracy, new variables have been introduced that are--through no fault of your own--making you less understandable. I think, though, that it still falls to you to make yourself understood, either by brute force and using your definitions regardless, or by being more descriptive.

I read this as the name Al. Fonts are tricky.

But yes, my hermes agent is named AI Gore.

Yes, we have.

Don’t worry: it will be “Super Intelligence“ now.

I remember how everyone talked about how the first Half-Life game implemented AI so well. The enemies were actually cunning, especially by the standards of the time; One enemy grunt would chase you into cover and have another grunt throw a grenade, while a third one circled around.

If a game today was released with a rumor of having "great AI implementation", a lot of people would understandably steer clear.

I had this happen with 3D (as in computer graphics, 3D animation...) when films started releasing in stereo. Fortunately it's mostly a thing of the past now

My personal pet peeve on this stuff is the word algorithm. Talk about a word that means something completely different to technical folks than non-technical.

The definition of algorithm is any well defined step by step procedure to solve a problem. To the nontechnical it means specifically an algorithm used by social media to rank and recommend things. Makes reading about social media incredibly eye rolling

Haha. Language, culture and society, golly all I can say is, sometimes it do be like that...

Take advantage of yet another communication hook that the old internet gave us: word tagging.

You can for example request comments on 90s!AI or you can ask someone to convert a image!GIF for you.

Ideally, AI is the larger umbrella term for just about anything. It should not be the term used when speaking critically of a specific kind of AI: NPC AI, TTS (text to speech), STT (speech to text), ML models for vision, GenAI (LLMs, image generators, audio generators, video generators) etc.

When speaking critically, most people do mean "GenAI" and that should be the distinction.

Baud comes from Baudot code. The things I learned getting a HAM license.

"GIF" as in giraffe, btw.

You forgot the biggest pronunciation hijack of the century.

I miss leetspeak personally

I always preface it with Generative AI if I am going to use it

I work in the games industry and AI is already widely in use for NPC behaviour

Just say I'm getting old and can't cope next time

This reminds me of the same naming treatment that telephones got, once something else got called a phone

Well one thing we can do is tell the fuckwits who want computer games without AI to learn literally anything about the subject.

We could use terms like "predictive systems" or "expert systems" or "monster control systems", but they're all more specific. I say we keep using the term AI when talking about the field in general and when someone complains tell them to stop talking nonsense, and then keep using the correct term.

I think you're referring to artificial general intelligence (AGI) and super intelligence (SI) or artificial super intelligence (ASI). Both were coined many years ago (~30) to differentiate from AI, which was already being used for much more than the original definition (which was meant to be AGI, or even ASI.)

For all three, GIF, hacker, AI, you just have to accept that language is fluid. Words are co-opted from other places all the time to describe new things. And to be honest, all of those terms have been used for meanings outside their original one for almost as long as they've existed, especially on the scale of human language.

I used to lament the term "drone" being used for remote control quadcopters... But the world won, so I have to stop being a nerd about it, and accept that it has a broader meaning now.

And just to note, people don't just mean genAI when they say AI now. They use AI for everything. You wrote a program to track workouts in a database? Better call it... "AI!"

It might change with the next AI winter.

Also, the old "AI" was already a bit of a stretch from "artificial intelligence".

In the meantime, I'll probably refer to the old AI as "enemy controller", at least in the code.

to be fair hackers could be all kinds of electronics and tech and depending what they are doing could also be called crackers or phreakers or such.

Well, the term hack has been around a lot longer than computers. Its past meaning is just no longer valid. I was watching the old tv show The Odd Couple, Felix's daughter said she just wanted to hack around, Felix had to ask what she meant. While she really couldnt explain, "you know dad, just, like, hack around", which in this sense seems to mean doing nothing in particular. Saying "I couldn't hack it" has a double meaning these days.

Didn't baud = bps since we send 8bit "words" so for all of intents and purposes (except 40 year old gear) it's kind of correct?

Who uses baud nowadays though?!

How do we discuss anything when different people mean different things but use the same words? We all have weird perceptions of scale. Ask an american how far away 'far away' is. Then ask a European. Ask someone how they define 'smart.' Then ask someone who fits the first one's definition. You can get probably a dozen definitions each for words like 'friend,' 'trans,' 'fascist,' 'appropriate for children,' or just 'child.' Some people are dedicated to precision of language but society is full of people who say 'It was bluh,' because they either cannot, or just as often will not, put in the mental effort to find the words to express what they mean. Add in how most people don't have the time/bandwidth to learn what AI is, (or LLM, or genAI, or agentic, or neural networks, or conditionals, or statistical modeling, or anything else) but still want to feel like they do, so they map 'AI' onto some pre-existing concept in their head so they don't have to learn a new word.

I'm not sure you're realizing the difference between enemy AI and generative art AI.

I have to explain to people that, yes, my paper was on AI but on a VERY specific one testing a specific use case of an ai trained to find cancer cells left over from surgery. Its not at ALL like the LLMs we are looking at now.

They also think mire GPUs and RAM ate going to make LLMs behave better haha. Its so funny what layman and industry thinks.

I just act like Randal when someone says I "can't say that" or use "that word" anymore.

Yes

“guys” now means “all yall”

I guess people don’t know ASI is a thing.

Don't you mean SI?

The term AI will evolve again because LLMs are just a temporary storm in a tea cup. Other forms of AI will come to the fore again and muddy the water.

I've always thought of AI purely as true "general AI", and think the term was misused before to describe complex algorithms etc. This is just the current phase of the misuse of the term AI.

You did it to yourselves by overreacting.