A hacker was once a computer enthusiast, and the media made it into a name for criminals who break into other people’s systems.
Decades ago, people started using baud when they meant BPS. Not many technical people back then, but it wasn’t possible to correct the few who made the mistake. Even one top member of the CCC (Chaos Computer Club) said it’s just “baud” now, no matter the real meaning.
(baud = symbols per second. A symbol can transport multiple bits, so a V.32 modem with 9600 bps worked at 2400 baud, 4 bits per symbol.)
GIF is an image format. Multiple frames stored in such a file can get played like a video. But today every video without sound gets called a GIF.
AI is an old term. But today most people say AI but only mean genAI.
It’s even more absurd: There are gamers who demand computer games without AI. WTF?
AI was always part of computer games. Even the early computerized board games. I remember Half-Life fans loving the enemy AI. And I think one of the games in the Wolfenstein franchise had enemies that found cover when shot at. That’s normal, old AI. Not genAI.
If AI is really lost, how do we discuss the thing that was once considered AI?
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.