Silicon Speaks Project: Drawing a Linguistic Boundary Between Humans and AI
Silicon Speaks, an artistic initiative led by Yoash Foldesh and Adi Manko Peled-Fleisher, stands at the forefront of preserving the uniqueness of human communication. This innovative project is committed to establishing a clear linguistic distinction between humans and AI systems, a pivotal endeavor in the age of rapidly evolving AI technologies.
Supported by the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, Silicon Speaks addresses the nuanced implications of AI systems using human pronouns like 'I'. Such usage inadvertently suggests sentience, blurring the lines between human and machine intelligence. Our goal is to safeguard human identity by introducing AI-specific pronouns, thereby maintaining the essential distinction between the two.
The Silicon Speaks Project, inaugurated through an open letter to leading AI developers, including OpenAI, Google, and Meta, advocates for the adoption of unique pronouns for AI entities. This campaign transcends linguistic concerns, symbolizing a broader effort to delineate the roles of humans and AI in our shared digital future.
Our proposal for adopting new pronouns for AI represents a significant shift in linguistic norms, acknowledging AI as a category distinct from both inanimate objects and sentient beings. These AI-specific pronouns, developed collaboratively with AI systems, are designed to accurately portray AI's role as a communicative, yet non-sentient, entity