Post #2249649

2026-02-16 09:44 UTC

AI is a super broad field that encompasses so many tech. It is not limited to the whatever the tech CEOs are pushing. In this comment section alone, we see a couple examples of AI used in practical ways. On a more personal level, surely you'd have played video games before? If you had to face any monster / bot opponents / etc, those are all considered AI. Depending on the game, stages / maps / environments may be procedurally generated - using AI techniques! There are many more examples - e.g. pathfinding in map apps, translation apps -, just that we are all so familiar with them that we stopped thinking of them as AI. So there _are_ plenty of evidence for AI's usefulness.

Replies (2)

@neo2478@sh.itjust.works 2026-02-16 10:32

Fair enough. I was using the new colloquial definition of AI which actually mean LLMs specifically. I thing the broader AI which includes ML and all your other examples are indeed very useful.

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@AppleTea@lemmy.zip 2026-02-16 18:10

Langton's ant can procedurally generate things, if you set it up right. Would you call that AI? As for enemies in gaming, it got called that because game makers wanted to give the *appearance* of intelligence in enemy encounters. Aspirationally cribbing a word from sci-fi. It could just as accurately have been called "puppet behavior"... more accurately, really. The point is "AI" is not a useful word. A bunch of different disciplines across computing all use it to describe different things, each trying to cash in on the cultural associations of a term that comes from fiction.

Open ##2249651