Super-ficial Intelligence and the art of writing
I’m a 60-something writer who occasionally uses Chat GPT and voice recognition apps. But I also still like to walk through the woods with a pencil and journal, observing and taking notes, in the tradition of Thoreau, Annie Dillard and others. For me, the most “intelligent” writing is the antithesis of “artificial.”
Such writing is an art — not an algorithm. So in spite of the AI frenzy, I don’t see it as a panacea for writers — nor educators nor economists. It has some real benefits, but there is also a downside to replacing the human mind with digital substitutes.
Exhibit A: the voice rec app on my phone just auto-corrected “artificial” to art official. But there is no such thing. Art, like beauty is not “official,” but immeasurable and intensely subjective. We all see things through the lens of our own experience. So maybe the term alludes to a person who judges which painting or sculpture or essay is most beautiful? Some sort of art expert? If so, surely that person would know that art/beauty is never artificial, but authentic and decidedly human, just like the best writing.
The best writing is an act of faith in creation. At the heart of it is learning how to pay compassionate attention to the world. But admittedly, that has gotten much more difficult — amid a tik-toking, snap-chatting, world of perpetual distraction, shrinking attention spans and crazed longings for attention, for likes, for followers. And that is the question we all live in: How does one both fervently pay attention and desperately seek it?
And it is a good question for President Trump, who often seems more concerned with getting attention than paying it. And while he himself is easily distracted — often with renaming things (the Trump-Kennedy Center, The Trump Institute of Peace, Trump-class Warships, etc.) — he also excels in the art of distraction. His answer to the AI dilemma is to eliminate the word “artificial.”
He knows that the word is distracting his followers from focusing on him and his Truth Social posts. He knows that no one wants artificial flowers or friends or love or food. And he knows that most Americans see AI as “bad for society,” and don’t want the enormous data centers polluting and displacing their communities.
His solution is to distract: to sign an executive order formally directing the federal government to replace “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence” and “SI” across all executive branch operations. On “Truth Social” he went on to say that anyone who used “Artificial Intelligence,” instead of “Super Intelligence,” will be considered “the enemy.”
So I guess I may be the enemy. Though the president seems more focused on the “social” rather than “truth” aspects of this issue, and not very concerned about what any of these words actually mean. Artificial intelligence is defined as “the capability of computer systems or algorithms to imitate intelligent human behavior. ” (Merriam Webster). The key word is imitation. AI is human-made but not human. It does not involve consciousness or a conscience. In short, “artificial” is the correct word to describe AI and the technology in question.
“Super” on the other hand would seem irrelevant. It’s a prefix that evolved throughout the 20th century: heroes became superheroes, stars became superstars, and markets became supermarkets. But does adding “super” (i.e. “above or higher”) actually change the meaning of the noun it modifies? Perhaps, at times it has — to adapt to modernity. Some powerful countries were called superpowers, for example, only when they had acquired nuclear weapons. But that’s not the norm. The point is that “super” is not an accurate substitute for “artificial.” Rather, it is simply part of a political strategy. No different than calling authentic, well-researched news coverage “fake news.” Or renaming the The Department of Defense the Department of War, or The Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of America, or Veterans Day Victory Day.
If the president is intent on using “super” to replace “artificial,” I would suggest he go with superficial intelligence. This is a much more accurate modifier, and a word that would also seem to suit his approach to governance.
• Tom Montgomery Fate is a retired English professor and the author of six books of creative nonfiction. The most recent is The Long Way Home, a travel memoir.