Suspicious Adapters, April 1, 2026.

Introduction.

We've already considered the great threat posed by the interactive impressiveness of AI,

which will be the temptation to what I called AI idolatry.

In our treatment of that danger, we noted that

there are two kinds of idols. There are idols that must simply be destroyed, and that's that,

and then they're the idols which must merely be demoted. That statue of Chimosh on your

mantelpiece is something that simply has to go. The savings account that you thought about far

too fondly and frequently is an idol that needs to be demoted. If AI is something that

falls in the second category, as I believe it is, then we need to get some handles on it. How do we

practically keep from promoting it wrongly and how do we go about demoting it if we have already

sinned in this way? Well, it may be lawful to keep the bottle around. How do we get the genie back

into it? Define it first.

One of the first challenges we face is that of defining it too narrowly, leaving some things out

and therefore unguarded. We need to be careful so that we know what we're talking about exactly.

Your rock collection may not be AI, but after that, things can get blurry and confusing.

One of the things that makes this discussion

so zesty is that definitions vary. I expect some letters on this, but work with me. I'm using a

stipulated definition gathered from various sources. So what is a broad definition of AI? That

would include any digital machine that performs a task that would normally require human intelligence

to perform. Say a thermostat would normally require human intelligence to perform.

Say a thermostat that is programmed to adjust to changing outside temperatures or the navigation

...