The AI Challenge: Who are we? Images Copyright Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Sony;

Artificial Intelligence What is AI? 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 What did you think of Moravec’s brain replacement thought experiment? 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 What is Moravec’s definition of what it means to be a person? Body Identity: You are your body. Continuity of a person requires continuity of body. Pattern Identity: You are the pattern of processing going on in your head.

Moravec 3 Where does Moravec’s paper get its name? Reductionism: Any apparently mental characteristics of people are explainable in terms of physical processes Dualism: 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 Functionalism: 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

What do you think? Will computers ever be intelligent? Really intelligent?

What is a person? Is there anything to a person besides “intelligence”? 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 ~prinz/pictures/

Hidden Assumptions? Strong AI proponents: a machine as complex as a brain would be as intelligent as a person, and would therefore be a person. Hidden assumptions: 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? “All the world (including the brain and mind) operate according to physical laws.” Materialism [or metaphysical materialism] “There is a part of the mind (or soul or spirit) that is outside of nature, exempt from physical laws.” Dualism [or Cartesian dualism] “The mind is the program running on the ‘wet-ware’ of the brain.” Functionalism

Non-Reductive Materialism Characteristics 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 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 Characteristics 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 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 In the past 300 years, would you say that computers have made progress in the following? Adding/subtracting Computation Handwriting, speech recognition Theorem proving Reasoning Creativity Ability to pass the Turing test

Conclusions In the past 300 years, would you say that computers have made progress in the following? 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? 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? 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?