This has been discussed before, but it is still worth pointing out.
I suspect that the “social business” aspect of the SIAI is severely hurt by the organization’s name. It gives off an instant nerdy vibe that turns people off in “5 seconds or less”. “Artificial Intelligence” sounds like an academic pursuit from the bowels of MIT, and the “Singularity” idea is still pretty controversial. Given that SIAI competes for funding with the non-profits like UN’s Global Issues, Liu Institute for Global Issues and many others, a better name might be in order. Consider for example the way the Lifeboat Foundation is named: it gets instant emotional response from most people, due to the obvious allegories.
A less-geeky name could be a cheap step toward a more mainstream support.
This has been discussed before, but it is still worth pointing out.
I suspect that the “social business” aspect of the SIAI is severely hurt by the organization’s name. It gives off an instant nerdy vibe that turns people off in “5 seconds or less”. “Artificial Intelligence” sounds like an academic pursuit from the bowels of MIT, and the “Singularity” idea is still pretty controversial. Given that SIAI competes for funding with the non-profits like UN’s Global Issues, Liu Institute for Global Issues and many others, a better name might be in order. Consider for example the way the Lifeboat Foundation is named: it gets instant emotional response from most people, due to the obvious allegories.
A less-geeky name could be a cheap step toward a more mainstream support.
That’s an excellent point. I wonder if it’s too late at this point for a renaming, or not?
Isn’t it literally that?
This doesn’t preclude it also being other things, of course...
While I admit that I don’t precisely know where the bowels of MIT were, I’m pretty sure the AI Lab wasn’t in them.
Presumably that would be the steam tunnels, which (if memory of lore serves) many AI hackers of yore spent time exploring.
Edited to add:
Hack, sense 9, in the Jargon File makes oblique reference.
Well, sure, but you might as well say that AI came from the cafeterias of MIT, where many AI hackers spent time eating.
A case could certainly be made.
They are rebranding into just “Singularity Institute”, though I’m not sure whether that’s an improvement.
Wait… they are getting rid of the part that actually makes sense and keeping ‘Singularity’? Fail.