this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023

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Should AI be referred to as "it" or "they"? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by Someasy to c/asklemmy

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Of course AI isn't sentient/conscious, but it exhibits traits of high intelligence, even personality, and behaviours consistent with sentience, even if it's merely simulated.

The answer ChatGPT gave me:

Referring to AI as "it" is the most common practice since AI, as a technological entity, doesn't possess inherent human-like qualities. However, as AI advances and becomes more integrated into daily life, some individuals prefer using "they" to acknowledge the complexity and multifaceted nature of AI systems. This choice can reflect a perspective that sees AI as more than just a tool or machine, attributing a certain level of agency or personality to these systems. Both "it" and "they" can be used, but the context and individual preferences often guide the choice.

And in response to "Is AI alive in a way?"

AI lacks the fundamental attributes of living organisms, such as biological processes and the ability to reproduce. However, AI can exhibit behaviors that simulate aspects of intelligence, learning, and adaptation. While it's not alive in a biological sense, some people metaphorically attribute a form of "life" to AI due to its dynamic nature, ability to evolve, and perform complex tasks autonomously. This association with "life" is more symbolic or metaphorical rather than literal.

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[–] Someasy 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It refers to objects, they refers to sentience or the fact of "someone" being a conscious individual rather than just a "something".

But in this case, they would be acknowledging on some level, even superficially, AI's personality and agency to a degree.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It refers to objects, they refers to sentience or the fact of "someone" being a conscious individual rather than just a "something".

That's not necessarily true. "They" also refers to objects.

"It" is the third-person singular pronoun that's used when not talking about a person.

"They" is the third-person plural pronoun. It's used for males, females, mixed gender groups, objects, and mixed object/human groups. Or really, "they" is the default (or only?) third-person plural pronoun.

Unless you were going for "they" as the gender neutral third-person singular pronoun.

I'd argue that "it" works better for the same reason that you'd usually use "it" to refer to a robot or a computer unless a gender is somehow assigned to it (e.g., through a voice).

Choosing "he" or "she" is hard and not really logical. "They" makes it sound plural, or trying to hard to "de-objectify it". Kind of like someone refusing to use he or she to refer to someone who hasn't explicitly expressed their pronouns, but is clearly and outwardly expressing their gender.

[–] Someasy 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, I meant singular they. "They" isn't typically used for objects in the singular ("it" usually is used there). Nothing I'm saying has to do with plural pronouns, I should've made that clear. It's about he/she/they vs it (designating an entity as a personality vs an object, you might say).

And I think any entity with a personality could merit potentially referring to them as he/she/they, rather than "it". If they're conscious then I think it's definitely warranted, which is why I think "he/she/they" shouldn't be restricted to humans only, and should apply to all animals (or sentient animals which are at least the majority), as well as any other hypothetical sentient beings such as sentient AIs or sentient aliens.

Non-sentient AIs are what I'm really asking about though, but ones so complex that they demonstrate something resembling a personality. That's where it gets tricky about whether to designate them as "he/she/they" or as "it", personally. Presuming they don't specify a "faux gender" (like calling Amazon's Alexa a "she" without really acknowledging Alexa as a female), and if they were gender neutral/gender unspecified, the decision would probably be between calling them either (singular) "they", or "it".

In my opinion, given the lack of sentience, I wouldn't see a problem with calling non-sentient AIs "it", but if they were hypothetically complex enough to faithfully represent a human for example, I would then struggle to call them "it" and might have to go with "they".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Well, you could ask the AI or bot in question.

I think they generally refuse to pick he or she, but are fine with whatever you want to use

EDIT: Damn! ChatGPT has a preference now!

You can use "it" as a pronoun to refer to me.

(When prompted, with no prior conversation...)

Out of he, she, it, and they (the singular form), which pronoun would you prefer to be used to refer to you?