Stop Arguing About “AI”
Language, Accountability, and Misplaced Arguments
This is not a defense of AI. It’s a request for precision. We are using the word “AI” as a stand-in for explanation, and it’s degrading the quality of our thinking. What started as marketing shorthand has become a crutch. The more broadly we apply it, the less accurately we describe what systems are actually doing.
That imprecision has consequences. When everything is “AI,” critique drifts upward into abstraction. We end up arguing about intelligence, intent, or autonomy while the real mechanics operate underneath. This is what I mean when I refer to defaults getting set or thresholds getting tuned. Objectives get locked in without us understanding fully the what or how. Those decisions rarely surface once the system is live.
The result is familiar. People argue passionately about “AI” while missing the actual levers of control.
The Core Problem
“AI” is not a single thing. It is a label applied to a wide range of technical functions that behave very differently, carry different risks, and…
