Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence (Crash Course)

PHI598/498 Special Topics (1 Credit Hour)

Cross-listed with Computer Science and Engineering CSE 510/410

Schedule: Weekend of October 2-3, 2021

Faculty: Barry Smith and Jobst Landgrebe

Venue: UB North Campus (room TBD)

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Course outline

A range of traditional philosophical topics appear in a new light when addressed from the perspective of recent research in artificial intelligence.

These include

• consciousness (and self-consciousness) – can machines think? can they be aware that they are thinking?

• the nature of human and animal intelligence – might machines be one day more intelligent than human beings?

• the relation between brains and computers – is the brain a computer? could we enhance our brains by implanting chips inside our heads?

• the relation between mind and brain – might I, one day, be able to upload the contents of my brain and so live on, as an algorithm, in the cloud?

• the question of human identity – what does it mean to say that it would still be me that would live on?

Day 1 will begin with an introduction to how AI works. An AI application is a set of algorithms that can process information in a way that – in the typical case – partially emulates human behavior. Such algorithms presuppose in every case a certain model of the domain from which their input information is derived. We will explore how such models are built, dealing along the way with philosophical topics such as computability, explanation, and prediction.

For some domains, we can create models based on physical laws or simple rules (such as the rules of chess). For most domains, however, the complexity of the relations involved prevents successful modeling. It is for this reason that we face difficulties when we try to predict, for example, who will win a football game or what will happen on the financial markets.

Day 2 will use what we have learned on Day 1 to address the opportunities and limits of AI in modelling and emulating

• consciousness

• human language understanding and conversations (including discussion of the Chinese room argument and of the Turing test)

• social behaviour and ethics

• transhumanism, life extension, and digital immortality

• automation systems for business, engineering, and consumer applications

We will argue that AI will not bring cures for (most) deadly diseases, it will not replace human police with intelligent robots, and – except along certain narrow tracks, including game-playing and image recognition – it will not reach a level of intelligence that surpasses that of human beings.

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Faculty

Jobst Landgrebe is a scientist and entrepreneur with a background in mathematics, neuroscience, neuroinformatics, and philosophy. Landgrebe is also the founder of Cognotekt, a German AI company which has since 2013 provided working systems used by companies in areas such as insurance claims management, real-estate management, and medical billing.

Barry Smith is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy with cross-appointments in the UB Departments of Biomedical Informatics, Computer Science and Engineering, and Neurology.

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Background

Pre-requesites: This course is designed to be of interest to both philosophy and computer science and engineering students at both graduate and advanced undergraduate levels.

Grading: Grades will be assigned on the basis of class attendance and an essay on a topic to be selected by the student from the topics treated in the class.