The AI Challenge:
Who are we?
Images Copyright Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Sony;
Artificial Intelligence
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What is AI?
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Weak AI: “The art of creating machines that
perform functions that require intelligence when
performed by people” (Kurzweil, 1990)
Strong AI: “The exciting new effort to make
computers think…machines with minds, in the full
and literal sense” (Haugeland, 1985)
Is it possible to build machines that think?
Hans Moravec:
Dualism through Reductionism
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What did you think of Moravec’s brain
replacement thought experiment?
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Would it be possible in principle to give a person
a prosthetic brain?
Would the result still be a person?
Would the result be the same person?
Could the design specs be transmitted to another
planet, and a copy of you constructed there?
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to create a backup
copy of yourself to do your homework, say, while
you go out with friends?
Moravec 2
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What is Moravec’s definition of what it
means to be a person?
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Body Identity:
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You are your body.
Continuity of a person requires continuity of body.
Pattern Identity:
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You are the pattern of processing going on in your
head.
Moravec 3
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Where does Moravec’s paper get its name?
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Reductionism:
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Dualism:
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Any apparently mental characteristics of people are
explainable in terms of physical processes
There are two kinds of ‘stuff’: physical and mental
According to Moravec, the second substance
is…Computer Programs!
The Turing Test
Image from plus.maths.org
IBM Watson
Functionalism
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Functionalism:
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A mental event is understood in terms of the
function that it performs with reference to a given
system or organism.
The problem: it ignores the elephant in the
middle of the room (consciousness)
Away
Image from www.edge.org
What do you think?
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Will computers ever be intelligent?
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Really intelligent?
What is a person?
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Is there anything to a person besides “intelligence”?
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Consciousness: is it an “epiphenomenon”—or can it affect
the body?
Will: do we make real choices, or are they determined by
the laws of physics?
Moral responsibility: what are you doing when you kick your
computer—punishment?
Affections: is there a ‘love’ algorithm?
Spirit: is there a human capability to know God beyond the
five sense?
Intentionality: people believe or intend; is there any
meaning in a computer’s symbols?
Searle’s Chinese Room
Image from www.unc.edu/ ~prinz/pictures/
Hidden Assumptions?
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Strong AI proponents:
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a machine as complex as a brain would be as
intelligent as a person, and would therefore be a
person.
Hidden assumptions:
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intelligence: I/O, storage, and processing
capabilities
the brain: a machine whose function can be
duplicated by other machines (and function is
what matters)
a person: an intelligent hunk of meat
What are these views called?
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“All the world (including the brain and mind)
operate according to physical laws.”
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“There is a part of the mind (or soul or spirit)
that is outside of nature, exempt from
physical laws.”
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Materialism [or metaphysical materialism]
Dualism [or Cartesian dualism]
“The mind is the program running on the
‘wet-ware’ of the brain.”
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Functionalism
Non-Reductive Materialism
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Characteristics
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There is no non-physical part of a person
Mental processes can be localized in the brain
Consciousness, will, etc. are real, but they are an
‘emergent property’ of brain function
Questions
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Why should consciousness emerge out of a mechanical
process?
How could there be a real will or moral responsibility?
Where is the intentionality or meaning? In a pattern?
Both body-identity and program-identity seem problematic
What then can a verse like Matt. 10:28 mean? [Do not be afraid
of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.]
What about the existence of angels or God if there is no
second substance?
Cartesian Dualism
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Characteristics
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The soul is a second substance, created by God, like the
Angels
The mind is a faculty of the soul, and it can affect the body
Whatever the brain does, it is not the mind
Questions
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A second substance is messy…
Where does this soul come from? How does it affect the
body without breaking the laws of nature?
It seems that current research is localizing more and more
mental processes in the brain…
What does this do to the science of AI?
Conclusions
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In the past 300 years, would you say that
computers have made progress in the
following?
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Adding/subtracting
Computation
Handwriting, speech recognition
Theorem proving
Reasoning
Creativity
Ability to pass the Turing test
Conclusions
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In the past 300 years, would you say that
computers have made progress in the
following?
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Consciousness
Exhibiting free will
Exhibiting moral behavior
Love
Knowing God
Marvin Minsky
Tens of thousands of researchers today, in the
field called artificial intelligence, are striving to
endow machines with humanlike abilities.
They've developed programs that outperform
people in many specialized domains. Some solve
hard mathematical problems or skillfully pilot
ships and planes. Others can recognize voices
and faces or objects on assembly lines. But none
of them yet can dress themselves, or understand
the sorts of things that young children can. Why
don't any computers yet have what we call
everyday, commonsense knowledge or do the
sorts of reasoning that we regard as obvious?
Is Weak AI possible?
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If even weak AI is true, we can make
machines that act like people
Is this likely to happen?
Pascal, Pensées (1660): “The arithmetical machine
produces effects which come closer to thought
than anything which
animals can do; but it
can do nothing which
might lead us to say
that it possesses free
will, as the animals have.”
Does it matter?
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Do societal beliefs matter?
What difference does it make what people
believe about the nature of humanity?
Can you think of some possible societal
results of the “person as computer program”
view?