The Crack You Don't Notice: How We Learn the Same Thing Two Opposite Ways
Passelume · reddit · 2026-08-26
This article explores the contradiction in public perception regarding whether AI can learn. People deny AI learns because they define it as copying; yet when asked to define learning, they describe understanding and applying to new contexts—exactly what AI does. The author uses concepts from cognitive psychology like essentialism and prototypes to explain this cognitive crack: people pre-assign AI an essence of machine/code and subconsciously refuse to transfer the 'learning' prototype to it, despite observing behavior that fits the definition.
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