Technical jargon: What does "AI" actually mean?

The future of the industry stands and falls with this acronym. The A stands for "Artificial", the I for "Intelligence" and it is pronounced "Ei-Ai". This refers to everything that - not directly created by humans - ensures that we can and must continuously optimize search terms, campaign playout, customer behavior and other marketing measures. The abbreviation's little brother is called AI, pronounced German, and stands for "artificial intelligence." It means the same thing, but defines the user differently: while AI seems somewhat wooden and threatening, something sensual always resonates with AI. This has less to do with the fact that Steven Spielberg's film of the same name, which was launched in June 2001, enraptured the world and grossed almost $250 million, than with the fact that the Anglo-Saxon approach to this topic seems more relaxed than the German one.

While in the German-speaking world the ethical discussions on the subject are making waves similar to those on data protection, in the Anglo-Saxon world the temptation to capitalize on AI and the fear of the AI monster China are too great to approach the subject in a backward-looking manner. The fact that native German speakers shy away from AI may have its origins in coming to terms with the past and may be historically justified, but it does not stop the use of artificial neural networks. And even if Spielberg's AI was much less cuddly then than his even more successful ET, it is still more charming than AI. So anyone who says AI has more of a tendency to belittle it. Whoever says AI exposes himself as a backward-looking worrier. But whoever says "Kei-egg" definitely outes himself as an ignorant babbler.

*The author: Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He created the column "Vom Fach" in the NZZ Folio and was in charge of it for years. He presents and decodes words and terms that can be used either for small talk, being important, getting excited, playing Scrabble or simply for fun.