Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence 2021
Barry Smith
MAP, USI, Lugano, Spring 2021
Schedule
Monday February 22 2021 14:30 - 17:15: The Impossibility of Digital Immortality
Dialogue, Transhumanism and Identity: Can we download the contents of our brains onto a computer and become immortal?
The Turing Test and the problem of natural language production
Why machines will have no consciousness and no will
Why you cannot exist outside your body
Readings:
- Martine Rothblatt: Mind is Deeper Than Matter TO BE SUPPLIED AT USI SITE
- John Searle: Minds, Brains, and Programs
- Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith: There is no Artificial General Intelligence
- Scott Adams: We are living in a simulation
- AI and The Matrix
Tuesday February 23 2021 14:30 - 17:15: Natural and Artificial Intelligence
What do intelligence tests measure?
Functions of the human brain
Problems with the Hutter definition of intelligence
Readings:
- Shane Legg and Marcus Hutter: Universal Intelligence: A Definition of Machine Intelligence
- Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith: Making AI Meaningful Again
Wednesday February 24 2021 09:30 - 12:15: Why Not Robot Police? Dialogue With Jobst Landgrebe
- Jobst Landgrebe is the founder and CEO of Cognotekt, GmBH, an AI company based in Cologne specialised in the design and implementation of holistic AI solutions. He has 16 years experience in AI field, 8 years as a management consultant and software architect. He has also worked as a physician and mathematician.
On why AI ethics is (a) impossible, (b) unnecessary (with Jobst Landgrebe)
Readings:
- Moor: Four kinds of ethical robots
- Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith: No AI Ethics TO BE SUPPLIED AT USI SITE
Wednesday May 12 2021 14:30 - 17.15 Brain Emulation
Can we build an AI by emulating the brain?
Chalmers on Brain Emulation
Chalmers on Artificial Evolution
Readings:
- David J. Chalmers: The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis
- David J. Chalmers: The Singularity: A Reply to Commentators
Friday May 14 2021 09:30 - 12:15: AI and Ontology
- Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) (ISO/IEC 21838-2)
- Applications of BFO in AI
- Upper Level Ontologies
- DOLCE
Monday May 17 2021 14:30 - 17:15 AI and the Ontology of Complex Systems
- AI is a family of algorithms to automate repetitive events
- AI is not artificial intelligence; it is a branch of mathematics in which the attempt is made to use the Turing machine to its limits by using gigantically large amounts of data
- What sorts of problems can AI not solve?
- Paper:There is no general AI
Student presentations
Tuesday May 18 2021 14:30 - 17:15 Language+
- An Ontology of Terrorism
- Sentiment Analysis
- An Ontology of Language
- Language+Behaviour
- Language+Violence
- Slides
Wednesday May 19 2021 14:30 - 17:15 Emotions and Diseases
- Basic Emotions
- Aesthetic Emotions
- Disease Ontology
- Infectious Disease Ontology
- COVID-19 Ontology
Student presentations: TBD
Thursday May 20 2021 13:30 - 16:15 Dialogue with Jobst Landgrebe (Cognotekt, Cologne)
- 1. AI and the Mathematics of Complex Systems
- 2. AI and the Ontology of Power
Friday-Saturday May 21-22: SNF Conference on Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence
Course Description
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the subfield of Computer Science devoted to developing programs that enable computers to display behavior that can (broadly) be characterised as intelligent. On the strong version, the ultimate goal of AI is to create an artificial system that is as intelligent as a human being. Recent striking successes such as AlphaGo have convinced many not only that this objective is obtainable but also that in a not too distant future machines will become even more intelligent than human beings.
The actual and possible developments in AI open up a series of striking questions such as:
- Can a computer have a conscious mind?
- Can it have desires and emotions?
- Would machine intelligence, if there is such a thing, be something comparable to human intelligence or something quite different?
In addition, these developments make it possible for us to consider a series of philosophical questions in a new light, including:
- What is personal identity? Could a machine have something like a personal identity? Would I really survive if the contents of my brain were uploaded to the cloud?
- What is it for a human to behave in an ethical manner? (Could there be something like machine ethics? Could machines used in fighting wars be programmed to behave ethically?)
- What is a meaningful life? If routine, meaningless work in the future is performed entirely by machines, will this make possible new sorts of meaningful lives on the part of humans?
After introducing the relevant ideas and tools from both AI and philosophy, all the aforementioned questions will be thoroughly addressed in class discussions following lectures by Drs Facchini and Smith and presentations of relevant papers by the students.
Further Background Reading
- Gerald J. Erion and Barry Smith, “In Defense of Truth: Skepticism, Morality, and The Matrix”, in W. Irwin (ed.), Philosophy and The Matrix, La Salle and Chicago: Open Court, 2002, 16–27.
- Max More and Natasha Vita-More (Eds.), The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
