Is AI just an experiment in Learned Idiocy? I recently discovered that around 1440 a cardinal, Nicholas of Cusa, wrote De Docta Ignorantia—“On Learned Ignorance”––arguing that since the human mind is finite, it cannot fully grasp infinite reality. I have not read the book, but it is probably one page the idiot savants who became billionaires building AI should read. I would argue that if AI ever truly managed to simulate idiocy—Artificial Idiocy—then maybe it would finally capture the one human quality that really does seem infinite: our stupidity.
The problem with the new chatbots is not just that they are often stupid and naive; it is that they are not “stupid” or “naive” enough to pick up on the nuances, ironies, and revealing contradictions that constitute human culture and communication. Worse, by relying on them, we risk succumbing to the same obtuseness.
