Zuzai, a new word, indicates the absence of AI

We need a new word. How about ... zuzai?

I'll begin with something obvious: things made with AI tools are proliferating in lots of places where lots of people don't want them.

Not so obvious: we don't have a good, crisp word to indicate that something is not one of these things, in other words, that it is free of AI.¹

In certain instances, a potent word like "human" works well as a descriptor (more on this below), but in so many cases people need to resort to "AI-free," or "non-AI," or "human-generated," or even spelling out something like "I wrote this without the use of AI."²

As I see it, this unprecedented presence of AI calls for us to deploy a newly coined word to signify its absence. A positive, lively word that doesn't center AI and that is broadly applicable. I'll get more into the why later, but first, I'll introduce my candidate ...

Zuzai uses zero artificial intelligence

The text in bold above provides the new word, zuzai, what it means, and what the letters in zuzai stand for.³ So technically it's an acronym (and a nerdy one at that, called a recursive acronym), but all in lowercase like laser and scuba. It's pronounced like "zoo's eye."⁴

I've been thinking about coining a new word for months, considering different options, and zuzai rose to the top. Its syllables pack poetic punch. Alphabetically, it's about as distant from AI as you can get. It doesn't appear to currently have significance in the English-speaking world.

I can envision it being used not just to describe a creation (like an essay or an image), but also a condition. Think about setting your design software to zuzai mode, an author using a zuzai writing process, or a teacher requiring a zuzai testing environment.

Ideally this new word, if widely adopted, could attain connotations in the popular imagination, evoking associations with characteristics like authenticity or quality.

Isn't this a retronym?

Initially, I thought that zuzai should be classified as a retronym as well as an acronym. Now I'm not so sure.

(A retronym is a word or word combination created to distinguish an old type of thing from a newer variety, where previously no such distinction existed. Clocks with dials and hands only became known as analog clocks after the advent of digital clocks. Paper books (aka physical books) were just "books" before e-books. Snail mail used to simply be "mail" prior to email. Wikipedia has a surprisingly long list of examples.)

So zuzai seems like a retronym, showing up to describe something that hitherto required no added description ... but what is the some thing? Zuzai might be better described as a retronymic adjective which can be applied to many a noun.

Most retronymic adjectives, though, are words that existed prior to being used in a retronym. Even "offline" was in the language (originally in the railroad context) before the creation of the Internet. Zuzai would be an unusual neologism (new word) called into service as a retronymic adjective ... but we are in unusual times.

Coining a word is one thing; wide adoption is another

I'm a lover of languages, but I have no formal academic training in linguistics. Fortunately, one of my best friends, Alex, has a PhD in the field, and he's reviewed this concept.⁵ He wrote, "I am a pretty strong believer in the 'invisible hand' of neologisms, i.e. I don’t think takes, proposals, and arguments carry much weight in whatever ends up winning the day." I concede that zuzai as household word may well be a long shot.

That said, I take heart from the example of "vegan," which was proposed by a guy in 1944 to replace "non-dairy vegetarian." This positive spin on what is today essentially "no animal products" has certainly taken root and grown like a weed, and now the word can be used to describe a sandwich, a person, a restaurant, even a pair of shoes.⁶

Perhaps the arrival of the word zuzai (kind-of like vegan, or keto, paleo, trad, sober, clean, etc. to their adherents) might buoy supporters of AI-eschewing behavior by giving them a zippy, more affirmative shorthand to denote and describe it.

Should I be more clear about what I mean by "AI"?

Some readers may ask "Shouldn't you be specifying 'generative AI'?" and/or "Don't you know that even using the spellcheck in most writing programs is using AI?" and/or "What does artificial intelligence even really mean?"

In a piece from November about retronyms within the realm of AI, Eric Hultgren observes that "generative" was increasingly being dropped, even back then. I'll defer to one of the most prolific voices on AI, Ethan Mollick, who just uses "AI" instead of "generative AI."

I'm considering "AI" to mean what I perceive to be the most widespread interpretation: the technology that erupted onto the scene in late 2022. Not the technology in spellcheck or speech recognition or modern cameras' built-in image optimization.

Incidentally, I think that Janet Vertesi makes a strong...