“Rather you inhale it”
Instead of a central AI brain, AI is like a gas, composed of zillions of tiny interacting AIs that create an atmosphere. These zillions of minds are like eukaryotic cells in your body, or hundreds of varieties of bacteria in your gut. They form a presence. They are woven together into a vast network of intelligences that create an AI background. This society of AI minds is not so much seen by humans, as it is felt.
Unlike the AI of today, it will be deeply embodied – into robots, vehicles, buildings, and devices. But its embodiment will be so wide, so deep, so pervasive, that it will become the background.
AI might be thought of as a superorganism that is so vast that, like an ocean, it becomes the environment. This environmental AI, like many environments, can become imperceptible to those immersed in it. We’ll only notice it when there is a gap, a disconnection, or it goes down.
Like a coral reef, an AI superorganism will be composed of thousands of species of minds.
Some of these AI minds might be very narrow and dim, just a notch above being stupid, maybe as smart as an insect. Others might be math geniuses. Most sub-AIs will be engineered in the middle to do specific boring and niche tasks.
