Your first sentence nails it; from AI is nothing short of the Borg to AI being smart factories that are XX% automated or Google searches... agreeing on the defi

Your first sentence nails it; from AI is nothing short of the Borg to AI being smart factories that are XX% automated or Google searches... agreeing on the definition is problematic. Some thoughts: I think we have automated a great deal of our lives and automation is growing exponentially at present. Once we have achieved some critical breakover in automation, I believe we will start to see unification systems. These unification systems will bind the various forms of automation relegating human input to a bygone era. That is, the unification system will learn, optimize, and execute the "complete stack" of various industries... Think product distribution from factory to dock to end user. I don't think this type of automation is that far off. Is that "AI"? To me it is and I suspect most people outside of HN will call it something along those lines. When some kind of AI like Varuna in the novel _Influx_ by Daniel Suarez hits the streets people will not give one shit if you call it AI or God... they will be very, very afraid of it.