I didn’t say that AI was software by definition—I just linked to some (brief definitions) to show that your claim afaict is not widely understood in technical circles (which contradicts your post). I don’t think that the process of using Photoshop to edit a photo is itself a program or data (in the typical sense), so it seems fine to say that it’s not software.
Definition make claims about what is common between some set of objects. It’s fine for single members of some class to be different from every other class member. AI does have a LOT of basic stuff in common with other kinds of software (it runs on a computer, compiles to machine code etc.).
It sounds like the statement “AI is different to other kinds of software in important ways” is more accurate than “AI is not software” and probably conveys the message that you care about—or is there some deeper point that you’re making that I’ve missed?
One the first point, I think most technical people would agree with the claim: “AI is a very different type of thing that qualifies as software given a broad definition, but that’s not how to think about it.”
And given that, I’m saying that we don’t say ” a videoconference meeting is different to other kinds of software in important ways,” or “photography is different to other kinds of software in important ways” because we think of those as a different thing, where the fact that it’s run on software is incidental. And my claim is that we should be doing that with AI.
I didn’t say that AI was software by definition—I just linked to some (brief definitions) to show that your claim afaict is not widely understood in technical circles (which contradicts your post). I don’t think that the process of using Photoshop to edit a photo is itself a program or data (in the typical sense), so it seems fine to say that it’s not software.
Definition make claims about what is common between some set of objects. It’s fine for single members of some class to be different from every other class member. AI does have a LOT of basic stuff in common with other kinds of software (it runs on a computer, compiles to machine code etc.).
It sounds like the statement “AI is different to other kinds of software in important ways” is more accurate than “AI is not software” and probably conveys the message that you care about—or is there some deeper point that you’re making that I’ve missed?
One the first point, I think most technical people would agree with the claim: “AI is a very different type of thing that qualifies as software given a broad definition, but that’s not how to think about it.”
And given that, I’m saying that we don’t say ” a videoconference meeting is different to other kinds of software in important ways,” or “photography is different to other kinds of software in important ways” because we think of those as a different thing, where the fact that it’s run on software is incidental. And my claim is that we should be doing that with AI.