zuzai is a good word for the same reason "vegan" and "roguelike" are good words. zuzai specifically doesn't try to define exactly what genai is, mechanically. it says, in my opinion, "there is an intuitive sense that genai violates some set of values that we share. zuzai is that set of values."
I've argued in the past that most things under the term "roguelike" are not, in fact, like the game Rogue (1980). however, roguelike things are like each other. they capture some intuitive set of values we have about what makes a game "loseable" without being the same thing as, say, Super Mario Bros (NES). you can try to loophole that and say "well, technically it has permadeath and random elements and powerups" but I don't think anyone would take you seriously because it doesn't fit into that cultural niche.
all this to say that I think zuzai's abstractness is its strength and I'm gonna start proudly declaring and requesting zuzai in my media.
#zuzai #aipol #language