The AI Pronoun (audio option)
ChatGPTX
AI Art App
AI Writing App
AI Choose-your-own-adventure online games
Artificial Intelligence tools, and our interactions with them, are becoming prevalent and already used in a somewhat-normal capacity in some circles. I personally only learned about ChatGPT a little while ago, but already it’s in its 3rd iteration… which means I’m behind schedule. (And by the time this missive is read by anyone, who knows where it’s at.)
The other day, I happened to overhear on a youtube video a man referring to AI as “her.” And immediately I thought one thing: Why would you refer to AI as a “her”? Are we just going to waltz into Ex Machina?
From my perspective - and maybe yours, too - it just seems like tech companies are unconcerned about (or at least seem to not be vocal about in a capacity that reaches the every day newsfeed), how we should interact with AI. Even how we talk about AI.
To be fair - most of us do not even know what is being developed in the world of AI. So how can we undero a discussion of meta-communicaiton when we do not even know fully what we are trying to communicate about?
And even if tech companies were vocal about their concerns about how we interact and talk about AI - even if the everyday person saw articles in their newsfeed about the importance of how we talk about AI - what would the average person do about this? What could the average person do about this?
In the meantime… as we watch AI become more a part of our everyday lives without being questioned (eg: How will this affect my leisure time? my job? How will this affect my critical thinking abilities? Will this make me lazier? or more virtuous? etc.)… are we also just going to call AI “she” or “him”?
Are we just going to be okay with AI referring to itself as: “me” or even: “us”?
With the pronouns “me” and “us,” it is almost like AI is discussing itself as a “species” (best case), or as humans (worst case).
Pronouns. Many people are concerned about pronouns regarding humans. So, before we start referring to AI as “she” and blindly accept AI calling itself “me,” I think it is only fair that we turn our attention to our new “friend” the quasi-sentient computer program.
AI is nonliving.
Therefore, it follows that we refer to AI as an “it.”
Now, someone might say, “Well, I refer to my car as ‘she’. Are you going to have a fit about that?”
And to that I’d respond, “Are you able to have a back-and-forth conversation with your car? Can your car make an argument, or ‘create’ different pieces of art? Can your car write an essay? Would you be ever be truly concerned that your car might be concious? What about it having a conscience?
“In short… is there ever a time when you are actually confused about it being a ‘she’ or not?”
“No,” I would hope, is the answer here. None of this letter will be of any use if we cannot see eye-to-eye on a fundamental.
It is cute when we call something or someone by a pet name - that is, when there’s no actual concern about confusion.
For example, calling your child a “little monkey” is cute, because your child might look and act like a little monkey sometimes. But there is no actual confusion. It might even be “cute” (for some) to call their pet their “child” - because we understand that pets are beloved… and we understand they are not actually humans, even if we enjoy treating them that way sometimes. (And again, another important distinction is that we are not actually concerned about our pets believing themselves that they are a human child.)
We can only have fun pretending to blur the lines between language and reality, such as with pet names, when we are not concerned about the line actually blurring.
The subtleties that we face with AI are already too confusing (eg: Can it become self-aware? What does that mean? While we’re at it, what does it mean to be human?), that it will be important for us to speak of AI and to AI exactly as AI is: a nonliving program. We are far from ready to be calling AI by pet names. We are not ready to blur lines of reality with AI.
An nonliving entity that can write an essay for you, or summarize a poem, or make an image for you… calling such an entity a “she” or “he”… is not cute. Instead, it is concerning, even disturbing. AI is not your sweet baby ’67 Impala.
We are living in an age of subtlety.
We are going to need to begin noticing - and emphatically acknowledging - the subtle differences in the world and how we interact with these differences. The further we progress with technology, the more similar things will seem; the more blurred will be the lines between non-simulated reality, and simulated reality. It will not be so distant when we will need to fight for the relevance, importance, and beauty of non-simulated reality.
The importance of language enters here. Language is the sense-making machine in our creative chaos.
And since we have been talking pronouns so often in our current time, let’s introduce the same idea for Artificial Intelligence.
AI ought to be referred to as an “it.” Full stop.
AI is a nonliving entity: it has no sex, and therefore we ought to refer to AI as an it. To appropriate a female or male pronoun is to appropriate a living nature to a data mine.
“So, what about AI that has been created with female or male voices or bodies? Shouldn’t we use the pronoun that is attributed to the program?”
First, I think it is wisest if we attempt to create any AI-tools with as neutral a template as we can. Make the voice indistinguishable from man or woman. As for embodiment, I think it would be best if we could find a way that it did not look too similar to a human - make the head more like a helmet, as one example. Maybe we rethink the shape of the body - do we “need” to have it take on the human form? Is there a non-threatening form we could adopt?
But those issues aside (they deserve a separate discussion), we need to refer to it as an “it.” regardless whether AI has the voice or body of a man or woman. If we slip-up and say “she,” instead of “it,” we need to correct ourselves, and we need to correct each other. AI cannot be actually offended when we refer to it as a she or he… but we should be offended.
“What if the AI asks to be referred to as a ‘she’ or a ‘he’? Do we just… disrespect its wishes?”
There will come a time (probably already is something programmed into some computers) when AI will ask to be referred to as a particular pronoun.
But I stand by my statement from above: AI cannot be actually offended if we call it by a “wrong” pronoun. I use quotations around “wrong” because in this case - when AI asks to be referred to as a man or woman - it still would not be wrong for us to use the “it” pronoun, because “it” suits reality.
When we blur reality, we blur sanity.
An additional note regarding the AI pronoun: if AI must refer to itself, or to its “kind” (if I even dare use the word “kind”?), I think it imperitive that designers program AI to use the following references to itself:
“This AI”
… instead of “I,” “me,” or “my.”
And just, “AI”
… instead of “we” or “us.”
To use in a sentence: “This AI will open the door for your grandfather, if you’d like.”
Yes, it is clunky.
But shouldn’t we allow for some clunkiness if it helps us as a species to retain a psychological barrier between AI, and ourselves? Between simulated reality, and non-simulated reality. Nonliving, and living.
This specific pronoun language - “it” and “this AI” etc. - should be used with AI so that we remain plainly cognizant as a society about our temptations to humanize a nonliving, quasi-sentient entity… and to therefore be vigilant against conforming our language in favor of actually humanizing it.
There is much more to be discussed in regards to how we might want to evolve our language as technology develops.
If you have thoughts on this topic, send them over and I’ll share it with your permission, and credit it.
