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AI as Normal Technology

TalkArvind Narayanan, Venkatesh Rao
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AI as Normal Technology
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Arvind Narayanan presents his paper/book 'AI as Normal Technology,' arguing against superintelligence narratives by applying innovation-diffusion theory (invention, innovation, diffusion stages) to AI, contending that societal adoption is bottlenecked by slow organizational, business-model, and institutional adaptation rather than by the pace of capability gains. In discussion with Venkatesh Rao, they connect this to protocol theory, framing workflows, business models, and context engineering practices as new 'protocols' that must be invented, while Rao draws analogies to naval warfare tactics, printing-press literacy, and the hardness/mud distinction from Josh Stark's work to explain why protocol adoption is inherently slow but durable.

Topics

ai-as-normal-technology-vs-superintelligencecontext-engineeringinstitutionaltechnological-hardness-crystals-and-mudinvention-innovation-diffusion-frameworkprotocolsprotocols-vs-microculturesresearchtechnologytown-hall

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