> “insultingly naive”, “overly simplistic”, “immature and self absorbed”
..exactly what I would expect from someone partly or majority through a PhD about tools. I like tools, their design, creation, and deployment more than average (though probably less than the author), but you need to come up for air, man.
Your interpretation of that phrase is oddly specific, highly esoteric, and completely different from EVERYONE not doing a PhD on tools.
> AI is just a tool
That word “just” seems to be doing a lot of heavy lifting for you. This sentiment is not intended to downplay the importance of tools on society. The generally understood intent of this phrase is to quell the current hysterics and to reassure anyone unfamiliar with the term _back propagation_ that AI, in fact, is neither alive nor sentient (in the sci-fi sense), and that it is “just” statistical modeling. Do not mystify the technology.
> a car/hammer is just a tool
While these are unanimously considered tools, I could entertain a long discussion and the “particular specialness” of tools and things that are inherently dynamical systems.
> what prototyping _should_ be about
The huge majority of the rest of your rant (or what I read of it) is awfully presumptuous and weirdly confrontational. Who can say what prototyping _should_ be? You of many people should understand that the creation and use of tools is contextual, sentimental, highly personal, intimate even.
> “But artificial intelligence… intends us not just to sit forward
From the first part of “The phrase”… AI is inanimate. Humans DO tend to anthropomorphize, and the whole point of saying “it’s just tool” is to remind people that… inanimate things don’t have an intent!
> our tools are using us
I find this notion somewhat trite. “The tail wagging the dog”. I’m not arguing that we aren’t impacted by the tools we use nor that the use and proliferation of AI is not impacting society, but it takes a PhD level of mental gymnastics to push that concept as far as you have in your rant.
The important takeaway though, is that you are a human, with agency and autonomy.
> it only matters how you use it
The implication of “How you use it” is that YOU GET TO CHOOSE. what you think, how you think, “how you use it”™, and even whether you use it! The choice is yours.
I don’t myself have a PhD, but seriously, do yourself a favor and come up for air. Read the parable of “The Empty Boat”.