Language Engines
Just as steam engines harnessed physical energy to power the Industrial Revolution, language engines will power a new kind of revolution.
The Oldest Technology
In 335 BC, Aristotle encouraged his students to think carefully about how they used words to describe, to persuade, to reason. He understood something we keep forgetting: language does more than facilitate communication. Our reality is shaped by the language we use to describe it.
Every major shift in human society — the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution — brought new terminologies and new narratives. With them came new ways of understanding the world. The evolution of language is not just a record of human progress. It is the driver of it.
The story of AI is the most recent chapter in the story of language. Large language models are statistical representations of language. The systems built on them are, in a fundamental sense, language engines. They generate language. They amplify our most powerful tool.
A Different Kind of Skill
AI skills differ fundamentally from traditional technical skills. They are rooted in the mastery of language — the ability to accurately position a problem with appropriate context, provide a clear vision, and collaboratively guide the AI toward a solution through natural conversation.
Think about a conversation as a game of language. An open-ended, infinite game in which each of us is engaged throughout our lives. With each conversation we push our collective understanding. We gain leverage.
Conversations create new language. New language creates a new reality. Every new term, every novel construction, expands our ability to think, to invent, to describe — and thus to create the world around us.
Augmented, Not Artificial
The term “Artificial Intelligence” carries connotations of something separate, distinct from our own thinking. Something not quite real.
But what if we take a cue from Aristotle and consider our use of language here?
Shifting the terminology to Augmented Intelligence reframes our perception entirely. AI becomes a technology deeply integrated with human input and human interaction. A collaborative force, not a competing one.
This is not semantics. Language shapes reality. The words we choose to describe this technology determine how we relate to it, how we adopt it, and what we build with it.
What the Research Shows
A Boston Consulting Group study of 750 consultants examined AI’s role in driving value, and found a striking duality:
The same study revealed a leveling effect: nearly all participants, regardless of initial proficiency, showed improved performance with AI. The technology democratizes creative output, narrowing the gap between skill levels. But applied without understanding, it destroys value.
The 10/20/70 Principle
The most significant effort in AI adoption is not about the technology. 70% of the work is transforming how people operate — rethinking workflows, aligning goals, adapting the organization to an AI-integrated reality.
Talk to a Machine. Every Day.
The most urgent advice for anyone aiming to understand AI’s impact: gain hands-on experience. Reading articles and attending conferences is insufficient. Brief interactions with free tools using older models won’t cut it.
Work within AI systems directly. Study how changes in prompts and parameters influence outcomes. Integrate AI into your operations. Encourage your teams to do the same.
By engaging in conversations with these systems, we gain a broader perspective. We gain an ally in the game of language.
The integration of AI into society is not a technical challenge. It is a human challenge. And it begins by focusing not on the technology of the moment, which is ever-changing, but on language itself — the underlying essential tool in our toolkit.
About
Bill Moore is a creative director and systems designer based in Pittsburgh. He delivered this framework as a keynote at Google Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh Business Times in December 2023. His work explores the intersection of language, creativity, and machine intelligence.