Why AI is not (quite) the same as artificial intelligence: reconciling isomorphism and communicative efficiency in formal reduction
Abstract In line with the principle of isomorphism, formally reduced expressions such as clippings or abbreviations develop distinct social and/or semantic functions. This article argues that such differentiation follows the principles of communicative efficiency, with accessibility playing a central role. The claim is supported by a corpus-based comparison of the full form artificial intelligence and the abbreviated form AI in online news and Reddit comments. The short form is used far more frequently in the informal Reddit comments, which rely on a rich common ground, than in the news data. The two forms also display distinct semantic and grammatical profiles. Using distributional semantics (word and sentence embeddings) and Universal Dependencies, I show that the division of semantic and grammatical ‘labor’ between the forms is efficient. The abbreviated form tends to express more accessible meanings related to individual user experience, whereas the full form is more strongly linked to less accessible, abstract meanings of AI as a scientific field, industrial sector, technology or machine capability. In addition, the abbreviated form more often serves as the first element of compounds, whereas the full form often functions as a prepositional modifier, in line with principles of efficient word order.