In favor of (some) anthropomorphization of AI systems, from a leading AI researcher
manoelribeiro · x · 2026-09-09
Researcher Manoel Horta Ribeiro's blog post on Doomscrolling Babel argues for slightly anthropomorphizing AI systems:
- Opens with a dog-owner analogy: over-projecting human traits onto dogs leads you wrong, but total "anthropodenial" (a term from a Ted Chiang story) makes you miss real cues.
- Grounds the argument in Daniel Dennett's intentional stance: treating a system as a rational agent with beliefs and desires is a practical tool for predicting behavior.
- Core claim: human concepts help generate useful hypotheses about how AI systems behave — the skill is knowing where the analogy breaks down.
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