AI’s Destiny Was Never Intelligence

Only when AI became useful did it become attractive

Not all climbs are equally easy. Credit: Author via Midjourney/DALL·E

AI’s original purpose was to imbue machines with intelligence. It was doomed from the start. Not because of the sheer complexity of the quest, but because it was inevitable that we’d get distracted—and attracted—by a more enticing prize.

Writer Tiernan Ray has recently argued in an illu…