Tag Archives: AI

Machine learning and the need for innate foundations

Posted on August 25, 2019 by

This interesting Nature article by Anthony M. Zador came up in my Twitter feed: A critique of pure learning and what artificial neural networks can learn from animal brains: Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have undergone a revolution, catalyzed by better … Continue reading →

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Detecting consciousness in animals and machines, inside-out

Posted on August 11, 2019 by

An interesting paper came up in my feeds this weekend: Indicators and Criteria of Consciousness in Animals and Intelligent Machines: An Inside-Out Approach.  The authors put forth a definition of consciousness, and then criteria to test for it, although they … Continue reading →

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The ASSC 23 debate on whether artificial intelligence can be conscious

Posted on June 30, 2019 by

The ASSC (Association of Scientific Study of Consciousness) had its annual conference on consciousness this week, which culminated in a debate on whether AI can be conscious. Note: the event doesn’t actually start until the 28:30 minute mark.  The remaining … Continue reading →

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Protecting AI welfare?

Posted on April 27, 2019 by

John Basl and Eric Schwitzgebel have a short article at Aeon arguing that AI (artificial intelligence) should enjoy the same protection as animals do for scientific research.  They make the point that while AI is a long way off from … Continue reading →

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Is superintelligence possible?

Posted on April 10, 2019 by

Daniel Dennett and David Chalmers sat down to “debate” the possibility of superintelligence.  I quoted “debate” because this was a pretty congenial discussion. (Note: there’s a transcript of this video on the Edge site, which might be more time efficient … Continue reading →

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SMBC on what separates humans from machines

Posted on April 7, 2019 by

Source: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (Click through for full sized version and the red button caption.) My own take on this is that what separates humans from machines is our survival instinct.  We intensely desire to survive, and procreate.  Machines, … Continue reading →

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Why we’ll know AI is conscious before it will

Posted on March 5, 2019 by

At Nautilus, Joel Frohlich posits how we’ll know when an AI is conscious.  He starts off by accepting David Chalmers’ concept of a philosophical zombie, but then makes this statement. But I have a slight problem with Chalmers’ zombies. Zombies are … Continue reading →

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AI and creativity

Posted on February 27, 2019 by

Someone asked for my thoughts on an argument by Sean Dorrance Kelly at MIT Technology Review that AI (artificial intelligence) cannot be creative, that creativity will always be a  human endeavor.  Kelly’s main contention appears to be that creativity lies … Continue reading →

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Is it time to retire the term “artificial intelligence”?

Posted on January 24, 2019 by

Eric Siegel at Big Think, in a new “Dr. Data Show” on the site, explains Why A.I. is a big fat lie: 1) Unlike AI, machine learning’s totally legit. I gotta say, it wins the Awesomest Technology Ever award, forging advancements … Continue reading →

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The dangers of artificial companionship

Posted on January 20, 2019 by

Lux Alpstraum at Undark argues against “Our Irrational Fear of Sexbots”: When most people envision a world where human partners are abandoned in favor of robots, the robots they picture tend to be reasonably good approximations of flesh-and-blood humans. The … Continue reading →

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