After some mussing about the proliferation of AI generated content all written in fluent dilbertspeak, I decided to go to a definitive source for a remedy. I asked Claude (an AI) the following:
I need a short article on how to distinguish AI (as in Artificial Intelligence) from AI (as in Actual Ignorance). Please humour me.
Claude responded: Here’s your article:
The modern world is drowning in AI. But which kind? Both varieties are everywhere — in your inbox, in your meetings, on cable news, and increasingly in elected office. Telling them apart used to be easy. It no longer is.
Here is a practical guide for the discerning observer.
Rule 1: Check for Confidence Without Comprehension
Both forms of AI will answer a question they don’t understand with remarkable self-assurance. However, Artificial Intelligence will at least occasionally say “I’m not sure.” Actual Ignorance never will. If the entity before you has never once expressed doubt, congratulations — you’ve identified the organic variety.
Rule 2: Observe the Learning Curve
Artificial Intelligence improves with more data. Actual Ignorance is famously immune to it. You can present Actual Ignorance with charts, peer-reviewed studies, eyewitness accounts, and a signed letter from God, and it will emerge from the experience completely unchanged. This is its most impressive feature.
Rule 3: Listen for the Source Citations
Artificial Intelligence will sometimes hallucinate sources — inventing plausible-sounding but nonexistent references. Actual Ignorance skips this step entirely and simply says “I read somewhere that…” before stating something that appeared in a Facebook post in 2014. Both are unreliable. Only one is doing its best.
Rule 4: Examine the Hardware
Artificial Intelligence runs on servers, GPUs, and vast quantities of electricity. Actual Ignorance runs on grievance, nostalgia, and the vague memory of a documentary they didn’t finish. Check the power source. Ask yourself: is this entity plugged into a data centre, or into a lifetime of firmly held assumptions?
Rule 5: Apply the Update Test
Artificial Intelligence receives software updates that change its behaviour. Actual Ignorance received its last update sometime in its mid-twenties and has been running the same build ever since. If you suggest a newer version is available, Artificial Intelligence will install it. Actual Ignorance will explain why the old version was better.
A Final Caution
Do not assume that because something was produced by a machine, it is Artificial Intelligence; and do not assume that because something came from a human, it is not. The line is blurrier than it appears. The most dangerous systems are hybrid: Actual Ignorance confidently operating an Artificial Intelligence, or Artificial Intelligence trained so thoroughly on human output that the two have become, philosophically speaking, indistinguishable.
In either case, the recommended response is the same: ask a follow-up question, apply critical thinking, and perhaps go outside for a bit.
The author accepts no responsibility for any AI — of either type — encountered as a result of reading this article.
Oh yeah, and Claude even included the above disclaimer.