True, it only differentiates by connotational reference to standard SingInst arguments. Outside of that context it might be a useful phrase. It's just that the only reason people use the term is because they allege that "AI" has certain unfortunate connotations, but their arguments for why those connotations are unfortunate are hidden and inconclusive, and so suggesting "really powerful optimization process" instead of "AI" seems to an impartial observer like a sneaky and un-called-for attempt to shift the burden of proof and the frame of the debate. I'm too steeped in SingInst arguments and terminology to know if that's how it will come across to outsiders; my fear that it'll come across that way might be excessive.
I can't speak for others here, but one reason I've taken to talking about optimizers rather than intelligences in many cases is because while I'm fairly confident that all intelligences are optimizers, I'm not sure that all optimizers are intelligences, and many of the things I intuitively want to say about "intelligences" it turns out, on consideration, I actually believe about optimizers. (In other cases I in fact turn out to believe them about intelligences, and I use that word in those case.)
One of the most annoying arguments when discussing AI is the perennial "But if the AI is so smart, why won't it figure out the right thing to do anyway?" It's often the ultimate curiosity stopper.
Nick Bostrom has defined the "Orthogonality thesis" as the principle that motivation and intelligence are essentially unrelated: superintelligences can have nearly any type of motivation (at least, nearly any utility function-bases motivation). We're trying to get some rigorous papers out so that when that question comes up, we can point people to standard, and published, arguments. Nick has had a paper accepted that points out the orthogonality thesis is compatible with a lot of philosophical positions that would seem to contradict it.
I'm hoping to complement this with a paper laying out the positive arguments in favour of the thesis. So I'm asking you for your strongest arguments for (or against) the orthogonality thesis. Think of trying to convince a conservative philosopher who's caught a bad case of moral realism - what would you say to them?
Many thanks! Karma and acknowledgements will shower on the best suggestions, and many puppies will be happy.