What's in a name? Anti-humanism and the AI claim

The expression “artificial intelligence” is one of the most daring and dreadful claims in human history, implying a dramatic challenge to the core nature of mankind. The fact that it became a household name, characterizing one of the most promising area of human development, is a paradox deserving understanding. In fact, computer science represents a crucial area of technical research, having already produced several excellent results and promising even better. These projects are conceptually independent of the original purpose of building “thinking machines” and creating an “artificial intelligence”. This paradox raises three problems, which are briefly accessed in the paper. The first is how the “artificial intelligence” project came to exist and what was its logical foundation. The second is the characterization of the anti-humanistic elements implied by the claim to have “thinking machines”: ideological, theological, and operational. Finally, the last part of the paper will sketch the practical consequences the claim had on the evolution of the field.