Associated Press Stylebook Clarifies AI Systems Lack Human Characteristics, Sparks Debate Among AI Experts
The Associated Press Stylebook recently issued a clarification stating that "Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand," and advised against using language that attributes human characteristics to AI. This directive, shared on X, aims to prevent anthropomorphizing AI. The clarification has generated significant pushback from some AI experts and adherents. Henry Shevlin, a philosopher and AI ethicist at Google DeepMind, criticized the AP for what he perceived as hypocrisy, noting that an AP movie review anthropomorphized Optimus Prime from 'Transformers.' Dean Ball, OpenAI’s head of strategic futures, also expressed indignation, arguing that AI systems 'clearly' think and understand, and that the AP's definition of 'think' is flawed if it excludes entities capable of solving complex problems. Alan Rozenshtein of Anthropic questioned the stylebook's role in making 'metaphysical pronouncements.'
