Why the AI industry is so fond of the prefix ‘co’ – by an expert in linguistics

AI companies and evangelists frequently use terms such as co-pilot, co-worker, co-creator and co-scientist to imply these rapidly developing systems can happily co-exist with us humans. Their inference is clear: people should always be in the loop – the AI is never in charge. But amid stories of AI models going rogue and the prospect of recursive self-improvement (when AIs can improve themselves), is this form of language still appropriate – or a linguistic smokescreen we should be wary of? In…