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artificial intelligence (countable and uncountable, plural artificial intelligences)

(computer science) Anything that performs better than whatever we called “artificial intelligence” a few years ago.




This mislabeling is quite common in popsci outside the AI field, so sorry for the rant, but I've got to rant as this is my pet peeve. Like, I get the joke you're making, but it's based on a horrible misuse of the word. All the major dictionaries (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artificial%20inte... or https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/271625 etc) have only the uncountable or adjective meanings, and none have plural "artificial intelligences" as a valid option referring to anything ever, that's simply not a word in English.

M-W has (IMHO rightly) these two senses:

artificial intelligence

noun

1 : a branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers

2 : the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior

And that's it. There's no plural "artificial intelligences" or singular "an AI" because this term never refers to a specific system, it may refer to the field or the property but not to the specific machines which (perhaps) possess some artificial intelligence as the attribute/capability. Even if you'd have a system with fully superhuman capabilities, it wouldn't be "a artificial intelligence" because you simply don't (or at least shouldn't) call things or systems "artificial intelligences", just as you don't call people "natural intelligences".


I read it like "Artificial Intelligence could mean either of two things:

a) Intelligence that is produced "artificially, meaning by computer programming

b) Intelligence which is not intelligence but artificial so, thus not "real" intelligence.




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