AI as the Externalization of Intellect: An Analysis of D.Y. Tenen's Theses

The article analyzes concepts contained in the book by Dennis Yi Tenen, focusing on AI as a form of intellectual externalization. The author emphasizes that artificial intelligence is not an autonomous entity, but the result of "collective labor" (collectiva tabor)—the accumulated effort of engineers, researchers, and invisible data workers. The text references theories of distributed cognition and critiques the anthropomorphization of AI. The analysis points to the socio-technical nature of AI systems, which, while possessing specific computational mechanisms, are deeply embedded in historical and social structures of knowledge production. Overall, it is an attempt to debunk the myth of independent machine intelligence in favor of a model of human-technology collaboration.