CONCEPT
INTELLIGENCE IS A SUBSTANCE
The hidden conceptual metaphor that treats intelligence as a commodity existing in quantities, coming in grades, manufacturable and measurable — the foundation on which the entire AGI discourse is built.
INTELLIGENCE IS A SUBSTANCE is, in Lakoff's analysis, among the most consequential hidden metaphors in the AI debate. English speakers say machines have intelligence, measure how much intelligence a system possesses, compare the intelligence of different systems as one compares horsepower. They ask whether a system is intelligent enough to perform a task, as though intelligence were a quantity measurable against a threshold. Intelligence can be artificial or natural, general or narrow, strong or weak. It is tested, measured, benchmarked. Systems possess it or lack it. Every expression treats intelligence as a commodity: something existing in quantities, coming in grades, manufacturable, measurable, transferable, comparable on a single scale. The metaphor is so deeply embedded that most participants in the AI discourse do not recognize it as a metaphor at all.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The SUBSTANCE frame is the conceptual foundation on which the entire project of artificial general intelligence rests. AGI