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.

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[–] 50 points 2 days ago (20 children)
  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (7 children)

    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

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 2 days ago (5 children)

    not sure why this is getting downvoted, it's an actual quote from the site.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Oh good, I'm glad the author considered the question.

    Tell me when he answers it.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    I mean, you could read the thing.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 days ago

    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".

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago

    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.

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  • [+] [S] -7 points 2 days ago (3 children)

    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.

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