A hacker was once a computer enthusiast, and the media made it into a name for criminals who break into other people’s systems.
Decades ago, people started using baud when they meant BPS. Not many technical people back then, but it wasn’t possible to correct the few who made the mistake. Even one top member of the CCC (Chaos Computer Club) said it’s just “baud” now, no matter the real meaning.
(baud = symbols per second. A symbol can transport multiple bits, so a V.32 modem with 9600 bps worked at 2400 baud, 4 bits per symbol.)
GIF is an image format. Multiple frames stored in such a file can get played like a video. But today every video without sound gets called a GIF.
AI is an old term. But today most people say AI but only mean genAI.
It’s even more absurd: There are gamers who demand computer games without AI. WTF?
AI was always part of computer games. Even the early computerized board games. I remember Half-Life fans loving the enemy AI. And I think one of the games in the Wolfenstein franchise had enemies that found cover when shot at. That’s normal, old AI. Not genAI.
If AI is really lost, how do we discuss the thing that was once considered AI?
The term “artificial intelligence” was first used in the 50s, so video game AI wasn’t the original meaning either. Arguably neither video game AI nor machine learning AI are proper AI, but the term has always been very malleable. I don’t think the other meanings are lost. If you say “the enemies in this game have bad AI”, people aren’t going to think that you mean LLMs.
People are stupid. They will. Give it time.
Here is a video about a combat robot team using various algorithms to assist with driving. It includes the following:
The ai techbros won. We’re already here.