I had seen the #zuzai tag on mastodon a few times and had no idea what it was, but discovered a whole site dedicated to the new word. It’s pronounced like “zoo’s eye.” You might say an author uses a zuzai writing process, or a teacher requires a zuzai testing environment. Is it a little pretentious to set up a whole website to justify the weird, new retronym you just came up with in a fit of ennui? Maybe. But I like zuzai, it encapsulates something that currently takes a lot of words to otherwise explain, and I hope it worms its way into the public zeitgeist.
Having to make a whole website to make a cringe-ass word happen is so fetch
Urban Dictionary says: Fetch Stop trying to make it happen. It’s not going to happen. “That’s so fetch!” “Shut up, Gretchen. Stop trying to make fetch happen. It’s not going to happen.” Fetch by KamIsTotallyFuckingAwesome May 17, 2011 Word of the Day on March 30, 2019
and also
fetch slang for cool or awsome. Used in mean girls by Grechen Weener. Omg Kadi you love him. That is so fetch. Grechen stop trying to make “fetch” happen! It’s not going to happen! fetch by Kayla February 8, 2005
But from context I can tell you mean the first one :)
Us older generation thank you.
I understand not everyone has seen Mean Girls, but it’s kind of funny that the film itself is ancient (22 years old I believe without looking it up)
Edit: Just checked. Yep, it came out in 2004.
Haven’t seen Mean Girls but know the meme. When it came out, I was a teenager and in the target audience.
22 years = ancient?
Enlightenment is gonna hurt.
It’s old enough that there’s already been a remake.
In the context of film, yes. Two decades is a very long time ago. 22 years is a lot for a film, not so much for a building. Funny how things can be seen differently in different contexts.
Edit: It’s all about perspective. But people don’t like to be reminded they get older, I guess. https://lemmy.world/post/52285117
Yeah that’s like so old like cringe.
This is the scene. It’s actually funny.
That’s dedication.
Yeah, I’m not using this.
So hard to just say “no AI”
C’mon man. The cool kids haven’t made a new word in like 2 weeks now, and they’re itching to manufacture more distinguishing mannerisms and prove their edginess. So fetch; cro nap, slipwoosh.
So fetch
Plywood!
6-7
Same amount of characters too
What’s wrong with “no AI”?
“AI-free” is also apparently too many words
Noai. This program/poster/image is noai. Easy.
It takes too many words to say that. /sarcasm
That won’t get you a book deal like a “new word” will. The author thinks this will make him the next Cory Doctorow.
We have too many of those already…
And most of the internet seems to be UZI
Using Zero Intelligence
Or other alternatives like “organic”.
Artisinal /joking
Would the market for organic food be the behemoth that it is if the choice of label had been something like “synthetic pesticide-free”?⁷
Edit: direct quote from article
not sure why this is getting downvoted, it’s an actual quote from the site.
It’s getting downvoted because it’s answering the question with another question. They might as well have just replied with the 🤷 emoji, for how useful of an answer it is.
Since we’ve obviously all read the article before commenting, I thought I’d post a short snippet as a reminder that the author has considered the question.
Oh good, I’m glad the author considered the question.
Tell me when he answers it.
I mean, you could read the thing.
I did. He literally does not answer the question. He “considers” it, as you said, and then moves on. Here’s the context of the quote you posted earlier:
Would the market for organic food be the behemoth that it is if the choice of label had been something like “synthetic pesticide-free”?⁷ Admittedly it’s not a kale-to-kale comparison, but I hope the point is clear. Why mention AI if the point is avoidance of AI?
He asks a question, then says “I hope the point is clear” without saying what the point is, and then asks another question. He then naively follows-up that nonsense with:
These AI-focused terms do bring the advantage that they are instantly understood, but look how quickly “slop,” “6-7,” and “enshittification” were able to enter the lexicon.
Those entered the lexicon because they’re fucking words. They are sounds and arrangements of letters tied to concepts that we know and understand. You don’t have to read an entire website to understand what “enshittification” means, as it’s made up of words you already know. “zuzai” has no such connection because some guy just made it up. That’s precisely why “no AI” and “AI-free” are the better options, because it uses words you already know.
At this point, I question whether or not you’ve read the thing. Because I don’t understand how anybody can read this and think “Yeah this is a good idea” instead of “This is just a bunch of attention-seeking nonsense to boost his LinkedIn following for when he announces his upcoming book”.
I don’t know and we will never know. But the word is just appropriated. They didn’t invent a new word. They could have just as well used the word natural for the marketing. Both words are similarly meaningless.
It’s about framing. By saying “no AI” you’re acknowledging that the default selection is “AI”. By making a word for it you’re putting both concepts back on equal footing. That’s how I think about it at least.
Making a word for it is stronger reinforcement that everyone is treating ai as the default.
unfortunately this is true of <20s from what I’ve heard
By making a word for it you’re putting both concepts back on equal footing.
But they’re inherently not equal concepts.
What’s with the first z?
Without it it sounds like “use AI”…
Quite a dumb word.
It’s how you describe the horrifying new generation of Chuck E. Cheese establishments: zoo’s ai
That’s so stupid sounding. I’m not sure AI didn’t write it.
I prefer “slop free”
Slopn’t
Please stop
Cringe
we have fuck tons of acronym and new words already
plz stahp
“An author doesn’t use LLM” does take too many words. It’s much faster to tell someone they use a “zuzai writing process” and then proceed to explain to them what that word means in the first place.
But to be real for a moment, I think a neologism that just means “no AI” is giving more power to the “AI industry”.
The website gives an example, the word vegan. It’s as if someone who eats meat felt like it takes too many words to say “meat eaters” and made up a new word for it in opposition to veganism. If anything, they would be solidifying veganism.
Note: yes, people say carnivore when talking about meat eaters. But that wasn’t invented solely for this use and also it’s not precise.
“Carnist” is popular in online vegan spaces, though fortunately I’ve never heard an irl vegan use the term because to be honest it sounds silly and/or dirty when said aloud
Huh, I haven’t encountered it yet. The word makes me think of carnality, so yeah… I’m not gonna use it any time soon. Thanks, I’ll know what people are talking about in the future. 🙂
I think that’s a little bit different though, that’s vegans having a name for another group they’re opposing. I find it similarly silly as zuzai though 😃
This comment here made me read zuzai as a shortened paizuri and now i cant un see it.
It’s as if someone who eats meat felt like it takes too many words to say “meat eaters” and made up a new word for it in opposition to veganism
not quite - we needed a way to describe not eating any plants. Zero carb is correct but wordy, carnivore is succinct and descriptive. The problem is when people confuse omnivore and carnivore as the same thing (which is how most online debates tend to misuse the terms).
spam. slop. enshittification. we’ve had plenty of words enter everyday vocabulary. they all had to start somewhere (granted enshittification in particular is pretty easy to grasp without ever having seen it before).
Slop is not a new word at all. Spam is a name for then new concept. Also both happened much more naturally (hey, or organically) Enshittification is one word that was pushed by one person and people fell in love with it for some reason.
Look, invent new words. That’s how languages work. Especially languages like English. But then don’t complain that it’s too many words or there are no words to say “AI free”, because newly invented neologisms will always require more words in real conversations.
I mentioned the real problem (as perceived by me) below. I didn’t say we shouldn’t add new words to our languages at all. Admittedly, zuzai specifically also just happens to sound terrible and silly.
Enshittification isn’t a new word, it was just found. We’ve had “shit” for a long time, then Cory added “en-“ to become, “-ify” to direct an agent of change, and “-tion” to nominalize. It’s understandable and works within the context of the language, by people who hear it even once. It’s conjugatable, “enshittified,” “disenshittify,” and everyone knows what this means by familiarity of the language.
When I see “zuzai,” I see a Japanese i-adjective that I can’t get a meaning for. It’s just hanging out there and it makes me want to reach for a dictionary, but I’ll never find it, cause I don’t even have the right language to begin with.
EDIT:
Turns out it’s a noun, not even an i-adjective. Jail for slop peddlers though?
forced meme
It’s quite annoying that it’s a recursive acronym, and I would imagine will add confusion and hinder any wider spread adoption, or at the very least understanding of it
We use lots of acronyms like regular words, it just takes a little time for them to become embedded in the language. Everyone knows what a LASER is, if not how it works or what the letters stand for. We check the weather RADAR, put in our PIN codes when checking out at the supermarket, and write out our addresses with ZIP codes. Eventually the acronyms just turn into regular words for most people.
I think in line with Trump trying to rename things, artificial intelligence should be renamed by the rest of the world to “American intelligence”.
Yeesh
