AI is becoming such a bland word.

It reminds me of the Skinner’s Sense of Snow Simpsons' episode, when kids are stuck at school during a blizzard:

— Marge: This is terrible! How will the kids get home?
— Homer: I don’t know. Internet?

You could reuse that joke with AI, and it would be even better. AI is turning into a vague term, a one-size-fits-all infaillible oracle and authoritative figure, used to address any issue we encounter. What a joke!

Don’t get me wrong, I do not underestimate tools such as ChatGPT and Claude. I use them daily, but I apply judgment to ensure they make sense for the task at hand.

But look at this segment from The Daily Show. “AI says” is becoming the new “studies show”—a phrase that sounds authoritative but often masks lazy thinking. If AI could not find a single instance of Donald Trump using “enigma”, then it must be true: Donald Trump never used the word “enigma”. Then the Daily Show shows Trump saying “enigma” multiple times. This is both hilarious and deeply sad.

Let’s buckle up and get ready to call bullshit on a lot of AI-authority claims in the months and years to come.

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