Compare this to a similar argument that a hardware enthusiast could use to argue against making a software/hardware distinction. You can argue that saying “software” is misleading because it distracts from the physical reality. Software is still present physically somewhere in the computer. Software doesn’t do anything hardware can’t do, since software doing is just hardware doing.
But thinking in this way will not be a very good way of predicting reality. The hypothetical hardware enthusiast would not be able to predict the rise of the “programmer” profession, or the great increase in complexity of things that machines can do thanks to “programming”.
I think it is more helpful to think of modern AI as a paradigm shift in the same way that the shift from “electronic” (hardware) to “digital” (software) was a paradigm shift. Sure, you can still use the old paradigm to put labels on things. Everything is “still hardware”. But doing so can miss an important transition.
Compare this to a similar argument that a hardware enthusiast could use to argue against making a software/hardware distinction. You can argue that saying “software” is misleading because it distracts from the physical reality. Software is still present physically somewhere in the computer. Software doesn’t do anything hardware can’t do, since software doing is just hardware doing.
But thinking in this way will not be a very good way of predicting reality. The hypothetical hardware enthusiast would not be able to predict the rise of the “programmer” profession, or the great increase in complexity of things that machines can do thanks to “programming”.
I think it is more helpful to think of modern AI as a paradigm shift in the same way that the shift from “electronic” (hardware) to “digital” (software) was a paradigm shift. Sure, you can still use the old paradigm to put labels on things. Everything is “still hardware”. But doing so can miss an important transition.