Utopia Talk / Politics / The term AI coined to get research money

williamthebastard Member	Sun May 25 13:37:02 The term was coined to get research funding after the original and more correct term they were using, automation, got lumped in with machines at the level of bubblegum machines and mechanical clocks (automata) "Excuse me. I invented the term artificial intelligence. I invented it because... when we were trying to get money for a summer study and I had a previous bad experience ...in 1952 when Claude Shannon and I decided to collect a batch of studies which we hoped would contribute to launching this field and Shannon thought that artificial intelligence was too flashy a term and might attract unfavorable notice and so we agreed to call it Automata studies, and I was terribly disappointed when the papers we received were about Automata." - John McCarthy, inventor of the term and field of "AI"
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Sun May 25 13:54:51 I was so pleased with this I asked GPT to make it better. I approve. **** Well, as you're deploying your cynical reductionism—sounding so smugly detached from the history you're parroting—you’re missing the philosophical pivot that defined the field. The term Artificial Intelligence wasn't just coined for funding. It marked a break—from cybernetics, which treated minds like thermostats, and from behaviorism, which dismissed the internal entirely in favor of observable stimulus-response. McCarthy and the others weren’t after bubblegum machines. They wanted machines that could reason, represent knowledge symbolically, and engage in logic—not just react to inputs like a trained dog or a circuit in a feedback loop. So when you flatten that historical inflection point into a clever anecdote about research grants, you’re not just being cynical. You’re missing the entire epistemological shift that separated AI from the intellectual dead-ends of its predecessors. In short—you are, how do we say this? A stupid. First you raped Denis Noble's work, now this? It's criminal, what you're doing. You're criminally stupid.
Pillz breaker of wtb	Sun May 25 14:00:38 Fuzzy studies drawing attention to 'coining terms for funding' is peak satire, too.
Seb Member	Sun May 25 14:15:02 "from behaviorism, which dismissed the internal entirely in favor of observable stimulus-response." Ironic.
Pillz breaker of wtb	Sun May 25 14:38:31 I'm the same way you champion democracy, yes
Pillz breaker of wtb	Sun May 25 14:38:37 *in
williamthebastard Member	Sun May 25 18:48:13 ChatGPT: "John McCarthy coined the term "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) in 1955 as part of a proposal for a summer research project at Dartmouth College in 1956. The phrase wasn't just descriptive — it was deliberately chosen for strategic and marketing reasons, aimed at distinguishing the field and attracting interest and funding. McCarthy’s 1955 proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence was aimed at securing funding (notably from the Rockefeller Foundation). The language was deliberately optimistic and visionary, stating: "The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it." By using the term “artificial intelligence,” McCarthy packaged a highly technical and uncertain research agenda into something ambitious, exciting, and fundable. The term “artificial intelligence” was intentionally vague. McCarthy himself later acknowledged that he did not want to pin it down too precisely, because that vagueness allowed the field to grow, attract diverse researchers, and evolve without being boxed into one methodology or theory. Summary John McCarthy invented the term "artificial intelligence" as a strategic and marketing phrase to: Rebrand and unify fragmented research efforts. Distance his vision from cybernetics. Attract funding and intellectual attention. Leave the door open to a wide range of approaches. In essence, the phrase was a brilliant piece of intellectual branding, and it worked — it launched an entire discipline that still uses the name today. "Dont you dare call AI a marketing phrase! Its like a God!" - a guy who named his dog after a smartphone and a guy who made his smartphone self aware
williamthebastard Member	Sun May 25 18:55:44 What Shannon Thought Claude Shannon is known to have found the term "artificial intelligence" a bit flashy or overstated — at least compared to his own more measured approach to scientific terminology. While Shannon supported early AI efforts and even attended the 1956 Dartmouth Conference organized by John McCarthy, he did not use or promote the term enthusiastically. There are no extensive direct critiques from Shannon explicitly attacking the term "AI," but there are several indicators from historical accounts and recollections of his peers: Preference for Precision Shannon, being a mathematical thinker and the father of information theory, preferred precise, technical language over bold or speculative phrasing. The term “artificial intelligence” likely struck him as too broad and ambiguous, especially when the field was still in its infancy. Flashy vs. Rigorous The term “AI” had a marketing flair that was characteristic of McCarthy’s style — a way to draw attention and funding. Shannon, by contrast, was not interested in hype and had a personality and intellectual style that favored subtlety and rigor. This made him somewhat wary of the exuberance surrounding the term. Historical Echoes Scholars and AI historians (like Pamela McCorduck in Machines Who Think) have noted that some early scientists — including Marvin Minsky and possibly Shannon — were ambivalent or even slightly embarrassed by the term “AI.”
williamthebastard Member	Sun May 25 19:19:17 Its weird and a bit frightening that some people will objectify living creatures yet anthropomorphize dead machines.
williamthebastard Member	Sun May 25 19:28:24 I suppose they prioritize according to what means more to them. A dog can be a wonderful friend but its not much good at being a slave and doing work for you. A machine on the other hand can be your slave and if you anthropomorphize it, it can almost feel like a friend too! "Friend/slave, slave/friend, oh who am I kidding, the iChihuaha object beats the chihuaha friend every time!"
Pillz breaker of wtb	Sun May 25 22:44:42 "Sun May 25 18:48:13" This doesn't support your argument. It supports Nimatzo's rebuttal. You're not respecting your own framing: that the term was coined as a marketing gimmick and that that somehow detracts from it Your chatgpt output supports nimatzo. ""Dont you dare call AI a marketing phrase! Its like a God!" - a guy who named his dog after a smartphone and a guy who made his smartphone self aware " Doesn't address anything said, and changes the goal and presentation of your OP to allow you to claim some imagined high ground. "Sun May 25 18:55:44" None of this is relevant to anything nim said. If anything it detracts from your earlier attempt to spin the situation by reinforcing the fact you were ridiculing the term as a gimmick. "Its weird and a bit frightening that some people will objectify living creatures yet anthropomorphize dead machines." Nobody has done this and it doesn't have any bearing on the term AI. Your other post is nonsense.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Mon May 26 03:16:22 Well willie. You will be happy to know I once spoke to a SWEDISH EXPERT working on machine human interface about this. A woman and everything. Anthropomorphizing machines is just a headpsace efficient way for us to interface with them. Works like a heuristical frame work we project meaning into the machine, because it is mirroring some aspect of our own behavior. We don't think it is alive, as much as treating it as if, streamlines the interaction. That does not mean there are no mal-adaptive expressions of it, but I mean, people also sniff glue. It's not an argument against glue. And then with the: "Its weird and a bit frightening that some people will objectify living creatures yet anthropomorphize dead machines." Because you are morally confused and have a documented history of not understanding metaphoric language. You seem to proud of this, which I find amusing. You displayed your moral confusion in the "suicidal empathy fiasco", confusing empathy, an emotion, with a structured ethical framework, remember? Just switch "suicidal empathy" with "Anthropomorphizing".
williamthebastard Member	Tue May 27 23:36:22 Groks rep is as fucked as tesla's http://imgur.com/a/R3OqJnG
williamthebastard Member	Tue May 27 23:39:04 This, after Grok's denial of the holocaust recently, apparently
Pillz breaker of wtb	Tue May 27 23:41:31 What exactly is wrong here, williamthebraindead?
williamthebastard Member	Tue May 27 23:56:58 One would think that a neofascist like Nimatzo who professes to support Jews would think twice when his two BBFs on Utopia and his Tony Stark caricature hero are all antisemites. But, of course, like all neofascists who support Jews, as is trendy among contemporary fascists, their friendship extends only as long as Israelis are killing Arabs. The funny thing is that the Trumpian neofacist Jews Ive known personally all know that and say, oh we know theyre our friends now but will fuck us as soon as they get a chance. I think its based partly on their belief that everyone’s always out to get the Jews, even their friends, and partly because as neofascists, they know that since they all share a dog-eat-dog mob mentality, they’re all constantly prepared to knife each other in the back.
Pillz breaker of wtb	Tue May 27 23:59:04 It generated the image it was asked to. So it is working properly - and freely. And you're mad at that. Lol
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