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 presupposes that intelligence is