Singular or plural after AI?

Question

Should it be transcend or transcends?

However, it is forecast that in the nearby future an advanced artificial intelligence will arise: AI that transcends human beings.

However, it is forecast that in the nearby future an advanced artificial intelligence will arise: AI that transcend human beings.

What about here?

AI today generally exist(s) in non-sentient form, unaware of itself(or themselves) and unable to make conscious decisions.

Acronyms are generally pluralized with an "s", so the plural of "AI" would be "AIs" — herisson, Aug 17 '17 at 17:44
'AI that transcends human beings' is infelicitous, as 'strength that exceeds badgers' is. — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 17 '17 at 17:46
@StoneyB AI / Artificial Intelligence is non-count and both versions take singular agreement. — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 17 '17 at 17:49
@EdwinAshworth what do you mean by "infelicitous"? I'm just going by a book called "The Singularity is Near" by Ray Kurzweil. — Jack Welsh, Aug 17 '17 at 17:49
@EdwinAshworth: I've also seen "AI" used as a count noun, with "an AI" meaning "an AI program". It's in that sense that the plural "AIs" would be used (to mean "AI programs") — herisson, Aug 17 '17 at 17:52
@sumelic No, I assumed he thought the meaning of the sentence was illogical. I don't know what he meant by saying the sentence was infelicitous. The idea is from a book. I paraphrased it. And I fixed the 'forecasted' part. — Jack Welsh, Aug 17 '17 at 18:04
@JackWelsh: thanks for clarifying. Judging something "infelicitous" basically means that it doesn't sound good at all, but might be considered grammatical — herisson, Aug 17 '17 at 18:04
@sumelic I checked three dictionaries for this possibility before committing to the comment. Can you suggest one licensing the countification? — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 17 '17 at 18:06
@EdwinAshworth: It might not be in the dictionaries yet, but I'm sure you know that is not the final authority on the meaning of a word. People use it. It might be either jargony or colloquial at present, but you can find plenty of examples if you Google "an AI"; e.g. "What an AI's Non-Human Language Actually Looks Like" (The Atlantic),... — herisson, Aug 17 '17 at 18:10
"An AI Dreamed Up Street Scenes, and They’re Surprisingly Good" (MIT Technology Review), "Hear Me Out: Let's Elect an AI as President" (WIRED) — herisson, Aug 17 '17 at 18:10
"Strength that exceeds oxen" compares with "artificial intelligence that transcend/s human beings". If AI is being used as an abbreviation for 'entity possessing artificial intelligence', that is non-standard according to the dictionaries I've checked in. — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 17 '17 at 18:11
@EdwinAshworth: A dictionary not listing a word or usage doesn't mean that the word or usage is non-standard. It means that the dictionary says nothing about it. That could be because it is non-standard, or it might be because it is too rare or too recent for the dictionary-makers to have taken it into account. If none of the dictionaries you checked mentioned this usage, none of them have actually said that it is non-standard. — herisson, Aug 17 '17 at 18:13
@sumelic They list AI, but only give the non-count usages. I'll wait until one of them lists the usage before I consider it standard. That's the way we normally test for wordness etc here. — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 17 '17 at 18:16

jejorda2 · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-17T18:01:51.890

1

Both are grammatically correct, but they mean slightly different things.

However, it is forecast that in the nearby future an advanced artificial intelligence will arise: AI that transcends human beings.

This means that the technology will exist to surpass human intelligence. It's like saying that stone age axemaking was surpassed by bronze age axemaking. Artifical Intelligence, the art, will transcend human beings.

However, it is forecasted that in the nearby future advanced artificial intelligences will arise: AIs that transcend human beings.

This means that some individual artificial intelligences will surpass humans. It's like saying that stone age axes were surpassed by bronze age axes. Artificial Intelligences, the algorithms with their data, will transcend human beings.

It seems like you can't have one be true without the other being true, unless we have a few outliers and we don't know how to consistently construct them.

edited Aug 17 '17 at 18:01

answered Aug 17 '17 at 17:57

jejorda2

5,776

@sumelic Yes, you're right. I edited while you wrote your comment. – jejorda2 Aug 17 '17 at 18:03
Ah, makes sense! "AIs that transcend human beings" does look grammatical to me. – herisson Aug 17 '17 at 18:04
I guess I'll choose the former, as that's the meaning I'm looking to imply. – Jack Welsh Aug 17 '17 at 18:06
@JackWelsh: Just one other thing I noticed: if you are using "AI" to mean "Artifical Intelligence, the art", I would delete the article "an" in "an advanced artificial intelligence". In other words, I think the best sentence would be "However, it is forecast that in the nearby future advanced artificial intelligence will arise: AI that transcends human beings." – herisson Aug 17 '17 at 18:15
@sumelic Yes, that construction does look better. Should there be a comma after "future"? – Jack Welsh Aug 17 '17 at 18:17
@JackWelsh: I would use one; I think it flows better that way – herisson Aug 17 '17 at 18:20

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 17 '17 at 21:15

OP example # 1:

"However, it is forecast that in the nearby future an advanced artificial intelligence will arise: AI that transcends human beings."

This sentence could also be written

"However, it is forecast that in the nearby future an advanced artificial intelligence will arise that transcends human beings."

or

"However, it is forecast that in the nearby future an advanced artificial intelligence that transcends human beings will arise.

In either case "that" functions as a relative pronoun representing "advanced artificial intelligence."

Advanced and artificial modify the noun intelligence. Intelligence is a singular noun (M-W). The verb that agrees with a singular noun is transcends.

Singular or plural after AI?

2 Answers2