NYT "AI" explainer misleads. Deep learning techniques date from the 1980s, & "AI" had been hot/cold for decades, not slow until 2012. There was no new "single idea" in 2012. What WAS new, & propelled the AI boom, was concentrated resources (data/compute) controlled by tech cos.
The access to massive data (aka surveillance) and compute made old "AI" techniques do new things. And showed that "AI" could profitably expand "what could be done" with the surveillance data already created by the targeted ad companies that dominated the industry.
Telling an accurate story leads to much more relevant questions than simply narrating "AI" as resulting from scientific progress -- a singular idea from Zeus' head! Indeed, conflating scientific progress w tech co products is one way these cos staved off regulation for so long
To grapple with "AI" and the concentrated power on which it's predicated, we certainly need to understand what it is. But pieces like this do the opposite, further mystifying & obscuring, & ultimately making it harder to strategize how to shape and resist.
For an antidote, and a precise material analysis, I suggest the latest @AINowInstitute report, which provides a masterful landscaping and diagnosis.
https://ainowinstitute.org/
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Meredith Whittaker