SYNTHETIC SAPIENCE

As workers in the field fully understand, the phrase “artificial intelligence” is a terrible way to pick out the topic. Artificial intelligence is to be real intelligence, created by artifice. But artificial diamonds are not real diamonds created by artifice. They are fake diamonds. Real diamonds created in a laboratory are synthetic diamonds. And what is at issue is not intelligence—a phenomenon that admits of degrees and has its primary application to comparative assessments within the discursive community. It is really sapience that is at issue—something we language-users have and cats do not. So the issue would be better identified as “synthetic sapience” than “artificial intelligence.” But it is too late to get the label right.

Brandom, John Locke lecture 3 “Artificial Intelligence and Analytic Pragmatism”