People are falling for their chatbots. That's what they say, at least. They say it's real love. The text-based technology is getting so good; we're well past The Turing Test stage of development. If you didn't know any better, you might think there was a real person on the other end. Maybe even a real friend or a lover. The emergence of large language models (LLMs) has Continue Reading …
Philosophy Has Entered the Chat: Meaning in Large Language Models
If an LLM could talk, would we understand it? This is a rhetorical question making its way into the public discourse on AI and the generative text technology found in large language models (LLMs), specifically in ChatGPT, Claude, and the like. You could have missed it because the questions currently taking the stage revolve around whether LLMs are conscious, or at least whether Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 18: #Gaia
Eighteenth in an ongoing series on the nexus between religion and technology. The previous essay is here; the next essay is here. The reason, perhaps, that Professor Nick Bostrom’s demonstration of the probability of God’s existence has received so little attention and notice (especially as compared to the stir and commotion caused by his demonstration of the probability Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 16: #ScaryAI (Roko’s Basilisk)
Sixteenth in an ongoing series about the interface between religion and technology. The previous episode is here; the next episode is here. In 1969, philosopher Robert Nozick first popularized what would go on to be quite a famous thought experiment. Soon known as "Newcomb’s Paradox," after its inventor, physicist William Newcomb, it asks us to imagine two boxes, one of Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 9: #ChaosAndEmergence
Ninth in an ongoing series about the places where science and religion meet. The previous episode is here. The paired opposite to reductionism is called emergentism, and in recent years it has begun to gain an increasing number of advocates. In summary, it means that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Unexpected behaviors and properties can emerge, even from simple Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 8: #ArtificiallyIntelligent
Eighth in an ongoing series about the places where science and religion meet. The previous episode is here. At this point we have delayed the crux of the matter long enough. At root, Bostrom’s argument hinges on a single controversial question: Is it possible to truly create or simulate a person? Is there any point, with any level of technology, no matter how advanced, at Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 7: #GoingBayesian
Seventh in an ongoing series about the places where science and religion meet. The previous episode is here. We left off last week with the question of how much weight we should give to Nick Bostrom’s argument that we are not only possibly simulated, but likely to be so. This argument, or at least our representation of it, rests on two key claims: first, that our descendants Continue Reading …
Bonus: (sub)Text #3: Spielberg’s “AI: Artificial Intelligence”: What Is It to Be Human? (Part One)
For Episode 3 of (sub)Text, Wes discusses Steven Spielberg's AI: Artificial Intelligence with David Kyle Johnson, philosophy professor at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Note: Part two will NOT be appearing on this feed. Become a PEL Citizen to get the full discussion. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to learn how. You’ll find David's Great Courses Continue Reading …
(sub)Text #3: Spielberg’s “AI: Artificial Intelligence”: What Is It to Be Human? (Citizens Only)
For Episode 3 of (sub)Text, Wes discusses Steven Spielberg's AI: Artificial Intelligence with David Kyle Johnson, philosophy professor at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. You’ll find his Great Courses lectures here, including a course on Science Fiction as Philosophy. Philosophers are wont to talk about artificial intelligence in terms of thinking and Continue Reading …
How Moral Is the Moral Machine?
A 2012 article in the New Yorker reads: With or without robotic soldiers, what we really need is a sound way to teach our machines to be ethical. The trouble is that we have almost no idea how to do that. Four years later, the guys at MIT may have found an answer: through crowd-sourcing. The Moral Machine is introduced by its creators as "a platform for getting a human Continue Reading …
The ‘Deus’ in ‘Ex Machina’
Subscribe to more of my writing at https://www.wesalwan.com Follow me on Twitter What does the film Ex Machina have to do the deus ex machina as plot device? For one thing, the film includes an implied reflection on how the human drama will end. Would the advent of conscious machines aid humanity, even save it, by leading to the kind of super-intelligence that we can Continue Reading …
Historical File 12-1
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” - Romans 12:1 It’s not news that The Matrix is littered with biblical references. It’s also not news that the second and third movies are terrible. But, there is a Matrix supplement that is the best Continue Reading …
The Creation of a Superintelligence and the End of Inquiry
Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence is a book that imagines how we should go about dealing with a super-AI, should it come about. The thesis of the book seems to be this: if a superintelligence were to be constructed, there would be certain dangers we'd want to apprise ourselves of and prepare ourselves for, and the book is a precis, essentially, for dealing with some of those Continue Reading …
Episode 108: Dangers of A.I. with Guest Nick Bostrom
On Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014) with author Nick Bostrom, a philosophy professor at Oxford. Just grant the hypothetical that machine intelligence advances will eventually produce a machine capable of further improving itself, and becoming much smarter than we are. Put aside the question of whether such a being could in principle be conscious or Continue Reading …
Episode 108: Dangers of A.I. with Guest Nick Bostrom (Citizen Edition)
On Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014) with author Nick Bostrom, a philosophy professor at Oxford. Just grant the hypothetical that machine intelligence advances will eventually produce a machine capable of further improving itself, and becoming much smarter than we are. Put aside the question of whether such a being could in principle be conscious or Continue Reading …
Topic for #108: Dangers of A.I. with Guest Nick Bostrom
On 12/7/14, Dylan and I had a conversation with Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom about his new book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. We were also joined by former podcaster Luke Muehlhauser (Conversations from the Pale Blue Dot), whose organization often works with Nick and coordinates an ongoing reading group on the book. Nick's Future of Humanity Institute Continue Reading …
A Lagging, Nagging Take on Her
Her got a lot of attention during its run in theaters. It even captured the attention of philosophers, no doubt because of the movie’s focus on artificial intelligence, a fixation of philosophy for at least as long as the term has been in our common vernacular. Released on DVD back in the spring, the movie received mostly (but not exclusively) positive reviews. Life in Her Continue Reading …
Dreyfus on Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Artificial Intelligence
[Brad is a frequent contributor to our Facebook page, so we invited him to post on the blog - welcome him!] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99iTDUcBuRQ&feature=relmfu I found this to be an interesting video which relates to both the Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty episodes. In the video, Hubert Dreyfus discusses Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and the philosophical implications for Continue Reading …
From Technologist to Humanist: Google’s “In-House” Philosopher
I had been thinking about the PEL debate on the value of higher education, and came across this compelling story by Damon Horowitz. Did you know that Google has an "in-house philosopher"? Horowitz shares his personal story of self-transformation in this article for the Chronicle of Higher Education. With a background in software engineering, he had developed a career in the Continue Reading …