"AI is not the same as previous foundational technology systems". Hmm... I'm reminded of Paul Simon's "every generation throws a hero up the pop charts". You could apply the same three levels you describe to the Internet, with its foundational protocols and overlaid distributed applications. In fact any AI is entirely reliant on these deeper foundations for cobbling together sensible-sounding or looking outputs, ones which resonate with humans and their own distorted views of the world. Without being prompted and trained on these, AIs can't and won't do anything much at all.
I agree: AI is not just a component of the cognitive ecosystem, but an emergent product of that ecosystem. AI could not exist without its functionality and various infrastructures, including soft ones like massive high tech firms, social media, data lakes, the cloud, cultures that support innovation, and so forth. And I referenced electricity rather than the Internet because the Internet gets messy as an infrastructure and an ecosystem in somewhat the same way AI does, and I wanted to focus on rational and functional regulation, rather than the cognitive ecosystem itself.
"AI is not the same as previous foundational technology systems". Hmm... I'm reminded of Paul Simon's "every generation throws a hero up the pop charts". You could apply the same three levels you describe to the Internet, with its foundational protocols and overlaid distributed applications. In fact any AI is entirely reliant on these deeper foundations for cobbling together sensible-sounding or looking outputs, ones which resonate with humans and their own distorted views of the world. Without being prompted and trained on these, AIs can't and won't do anything much at all.
I agree: AI is not just a component of the cognitive ecosystem, but an emergent product of that ecosystem. AI could not exist without its functionality and various infrastructures, including soft ones like massive high tech firms, social media, data lakes, the cloud, cultures that support innovation, and so forth. And I referenced electricity rather than the Internet because the Internet gets messy as an infrastructure and an ecosystem in somewhat the same way AI does, and I wanted to focus on rational and functional regulation, rather than the cognitive ecosystem itself.
All good rational points. Thanks for those clarifications.