Names of computer programs

As previously noted, names are necessary for humans to understand and process information around them. They are therefore assigned to identify categories of Things and other Beings, as well as to individualise humans themselves and the few other specific Things or Beings that humans thought it was necessary to individualise. Importantly, however, so far in history, when humans have interacted with another Being, they do so on an individualised basis, meaning as an individualised human with another individualised other human or, even, with a similarly individualised organisation. Of course, humans may also interact with individualised Things (for example, the planet Mars or the ship Titanic or long-gone states or empires that became Things after their demise) but this has always been a one-directional interaction, that is, Things do not process humans’ information in return (as is the case with other humans or organisations). Artificial Beings (languages, money, computer programs), in spite of their in-between nature, did not escape this treatment by humans. However, there is a recent, specific case, among computer programs, that does not follow this rule, that of the AI assistants developed by software companies and installed on our personal information processing devices (mostly phones, but also computers). Today each one of us can communicate with ‘Siri’, ‘Alexa’ or ‘Cortana’, or even with ‘ChatGPT’. Importantly, these are non-individualised, essentially nameless Beings: they are whatever each of their creators decides to make them each time they are used. (Siri is not a dataset, because it is not set (see §01.00.02). Basically, Siri is not a name but a characterisation—, essentially the same as God.) This is a first, for humanity. Siri (to denote collectively all AI assistants) is different from an organisation or another human (including slaves), or even domestic animals. All of these Beings are named and individualised as the only imaginable way for humans to interact with them. Siri, however, is a nameless (non-finite) artificial Being (a computer program) that claims to single-handedly carry out personalised interactions with each and every one of us—the same single personal assistant for billions of humans. It is this realisation that helps explain the fear that AI has instilled in humanity. Until now, humans have communicated only with humans or other Beings, with all their identifiability and also their known characteristics and limitations. A nameless and essentially unaccountable counterpart would previously have been unheard of. A centuries-old way of communication, and society-building, is being challenged from the ground up—its very premise—and needs to be carefully rethought and reassessed.

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