# AI, Ai, ai... Frustrating, Serifs Please **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 25, 2021, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-ai-ai-frustrating-serifs-please/938643 "2021-03-25T05:52:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DaveUnknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@DaveUnknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveUnknown)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-ai-ai-frustrating-serifs-please/938643/1 "2021-03-25T05:52:59Z")
Can some entity please standardize A-i, artificial intelligence ? I still can’t stop reading, prefacing, AI as Al, as in the name. Is the internet default font non-serif? I know further reading one would deduce AI as artificial intelligence, but I am behind the times, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-ai-ai-frustrating-serifs-please/938643/2 "2021-03-25T11:48:26Z")
I know. What we need is something like Helvetica Textbook, which is a Helvetica with a serif cap “I”. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-ai-ai-frustrating-serifs-please/938643/3 "2021-03-25T12:25:07Z")
> [@DaveUnknown](#): > > Is the internet default font non-serif? No actually, the default internet font IS serif. Just out of curiosity, I just tested with some text in a bare-bones unstyled HTML doc to see if that’s still the case with modern browsers. Sure enough, Chrome, Safari, Opera and MS Edge all show serif. Most web developers go with sans-serif because it’s considered cleaner and easier to read. To me serif text looks better on the printed page, but body text on a computer screen looks better in sans-serif. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-ai-ai-frustrating-serifs-please/938643/4 "2021-03-25T12:47:01Z")
Couldn’t you just spell it “A.I.”? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-ai-ai-frustrating-serifs-please/938643/5 "2021-03-25T13:29:09Z")
I too have found the virtual indistinguishability annoying. I say virtual, because in almost every sans-serif font there are differences, but they’re too subtle to readily notice. You can change the default font in your browser to something where I and l and 1 are more distinguishable. For example, in Firefox, click on the **menu** button (three horizontal bars in the upper right corner of the browser window) then click on **options**. Under Fonts and Colors, click **Advanced…**. Under Sans-serif, pick a font whose I and l and 1 are readily distinguishable (I use Veranda, but there are several others). Uncheck the box where it says “Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your selections above” and then click on **OK**. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-ai-ai-frustrating-serifs-please/938643/6 "2021-03-25T16:57:28Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Most web developers go with sans-serif because it’s considered cleaner and easier to read. To me serif text looks better on the printed page, but body text on a computer screen looks better in sans-serif. Yeah. It’s a personal thing for me and others are free to disagree but serif fonts look so bad to me on-screen that It’s worth the occasional, “Kim Jong the Second?” misunderstanding and re-read. ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-ai-ai-frustrating-serifs-please/938643/7 "2021-03-25T17:38:13Z")
I recently learned from another thread that you can change your board theme, too. Go to preferences/interface and “themes” is at the top. The “Minima” theme uses a serif font. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-ai-ai-frustrating-serifs-please/938643/8 "2021-03-25T19:49:00Z")
I took the other tack. I just decided that, like the HAL computer in 2001, all artificial intelligences are named. The current ones, who aren’t as smart as the movie one, are all named Albert; Al (or is that AI?) for short. 😉 Try it, you might like it.