Humanism and AI

The modern technological landscape continues to alter. The world with it. There has been use of the term “Humanism” to describe the orientation of giant technological companies in the development of artificial intellignece.

The Washington Post stated, “Tom Gruber of Apple describes Siri as “humanistic AI — artificial intelligence designed to meet human needs by collaborating [with] and augmenting people.”

Satya Nadella, who is the Chief Executive of Microsoft, said, “Human-centered AI can help create a better world.” In short, the rhetoric around artificial intelligence amounts to the utilization of the terms “humanism” and “humanistic,” or “human-centered,” to substantiate the mission of the AI development.

The Washington Post argues the terms such as the aforementioned emerge in the conversation around the bringing of humanity together. However, some important points come in the form of the rhetorical aspect and the connection to the reality of it.

“The word “human” crops up in conversations across the technology industry, but it’s not always clear what it means — assuming it means anything at all,” the article opines, “Intuitively comprehensible, it sounds nonthreatening, especially in contrast to alienating jargon such as ‘machine learning.’”

The orientation of the larger companies is proposed to be for ergonomy. The development of technologies by and for human needs and wants. This becomes the basis for the use, even abuse, of the terms humanistic, argues the article.