{"id":629953,"date":"2024-08-06T11:32:07","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T08:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/philosophy-is-crucial-in-the-age-of-ai\/"},"modified":"2024-08-06T11:32:07","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T08:32:07","slug":"philosophy-is-crucial-in-the-age-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/philosophy-is-crucial-in-the-age-of-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"#Philosophy is crucial in the age of\u00a0AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a40762b7beb5\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a40762b7beb5\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/philosophy-is-crucial-in-the-age-of-ai\/#Human_values\" >Human values<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\nNew scientific understanding and engineering techniques have always impressed and frightened. No doubt they will continue to do so. OpenAI recently announced that <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/psycnet.apa.org\/record\/2014-48585-000\">it anticipates \u201csuperintelligence\u201d<\/a> \u2014 AI surpassing human abilities \u2014 this decade. It is accordingly <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/index\/introducing-superalignment\/\">building a new team<\/a>, and devoting 20% of its computing resources to ensuring that the behaviour of such AI systems will be aligned with human values.<\/p>\n<p>It seems they don\u2019t want rogue superintelligent AIs waging war on humanity, as in James Cameron\u2019s 1984 <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a> fiction thriller, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0088247\/\">The Terminator<\/a> (ominously, Arnold Schwarzenegger\u2019s Terminator is sent back in time from 2029). OpenAI is calling for top machine-learning researchers and engineers to help them tackle the problem.<\/p>\n<p>But might philosophers have something to contribute? More <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly, what can be expected of the age-old discipline in the new technologically advanced era that is now emerging?<\/p>\n<p>To begin to answer this, it is worth stressing that philosophy has been instrumental to AI since its inception. One of the first AI success stories was a 1956 <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/154193120605000904\">computer program<\/a>, dubbed the Logic Theorist, created by Allen Newell and Herbert Simon. Its job was to prove theorems using propositions from Principia Mathematica, a 1910 three-volume work by the philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, aiming to reconstruct all of mathematics on one logical foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/jmc.stanford.edu\/articles\/mcc59\/mcc59.pdf\">early focus on logic in AI<\/a> owed a great deal to the foundational debates pursued by mathematicians and philosophers.<\/p>\n<p>One significant step was the German philosopher Gottlob Frege\u2019s development of modern logic in the late 19th century. Frege introduced the use of quantifiable variables \u2014 rather than objects such as people \u2014 into logic. His <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roach made it possible to say not only, for example, \u201cJoe Biden is president\u201d but also to systematically express such general thoughts as: \u201cthere exists an X such that X is president,\u201d where \u201cthere exists\u201d is a quantifier, and \u201cX\u201d is a variable.<\/p>\n<p>Other important contributors in the 1930s were the Austrian-born logician Kurt G\u00f6del, whose theorems of completeness and incompleteness are about the limits of what one can prove, and Polish logician Alfred Tarski\u2019s \u201cproof of the indefinability of truth.\u201d The latter showed that \u201ctruth\u201d in any standard formal system cannot be defined within that particular system, so arithmetical truth, for example, cannot be defined within the system of arithmetic.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the 1936 abstract notion of a computing machine by the British pioneer Alan Turing drew on such development and had a huge impact on early AI.<\/p>\n<p>It might be said, however, that even if such <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/philpapers.org\/rec\/HAUAIT\">good old-fashioned<\/a> symbolic AI was indebted to high-level philosophy and logic, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mitpress.mit.edu\/9780262043045\/the-promise-of-artificial-intelligence\/\">the \u201csecond-wave\u201d AI<\/a>, based on deep learning, derives more from the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/How_Data_Happened\">concrete engineering feats<\/a> associated with processing vast quantities of data.<\/p>\n<p>Still, philosophy has played a role here too. Take large language models, such as the one that powers ChatGPT, which produces conversational text. They are enormous models, with billions or even trillions of parameters, trained on vast datasets (typically comprising much of the internet). But at their heart, they track \u2014 and exploit \u2014 statistical patterns of language use. Something very much like this idea <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/12073.Philosophical_Investigations\">was articulated<\/a> by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in the middle of the 20th century: \u201cThe meaning of a word,\u201d he said, \u201cis its use in the language.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But contemporary philosophy, and not just its history, is relevant to AI and its development. Could an LLM truly understand the language it processes? Might it achieve consciousness? These are deeply philosophical questions.<\/p>\n<p>Science has so far been unable to fully explain how consciousness arises from the cells in the human brain. Some philosophers even believe that this is such a \u201chard problem\u201d that it could be <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-mystery-of-consciousness-shows-there-may-be-a-limit-to-what-science-alone-can-achieve-225034\">beyond the scope of science<\/a> and may require a helping hand from philosophy.<\/p>\n<p>In a similar vein, we can ask whether an image-generating AI could be truly creative. Margaret Boden, a British cognitive scientist and philosopher of AI, argues that while AI will be able to produce new ideas, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0004370298000551\">it will struggle to evaluate them<\/a> as creative people do.<\/p>\n<p>She <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/ai-9780198777984?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;\">also anticipates<\/a> that only a hybrid (neural-symbolic) architecture \u2014 one that uses both logical techniques and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/nature14539\">deep learning<\/a> from data \u2014 will achieve artificial general intelligence.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Human_values\"><\/span>Human values<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>To return to OpenAI\u2019s announcement, when prompted with our question about the role of philosophy in the age of AI, ChatGPT suggested to us that (amongst other things) it \u201chelps ensure that the development and use of AI are aligned with human values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In this spirit, perhaps we can be allowed to propose that, if AI alignment is the serious issue that OpenAI believes it to be, it is not just a technical problem to be solved by engineers or tech companies, but also a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> one. That will require input from philosophers, but also social scientists, lawyers, policymakers, citizen users, and others.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, many people are worried about the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wiley.com\/en-ie\/Why+AI+Undermines+Democracy+and+What+To+Do+About+It-p-9781509560929\">rising power and influence<\/a> of tech companies and their impact on democracy. Some argue we need a whole new way of thinking about AI \u2014 taking into account the underlying systems supporting the industry. The British barrister and author Jamie Susskind, for example, has argued it is time to build a \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2022\/jun\/19\/the-digital-republic-by-jamie-susskind-review-why-the-west-was-no-match-for-the-tech-giants\">digital republic<\/a>\u201d \u2014 one which ultimately rejects the very political and economic system that has given tech companies so much influence.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, let us briefly ask, how will AI affect philosophy? Formal logic in philosophy actually dates to Aristotle\u2019s work in antiquity. In the 17th century, the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz suggested that we may one day have a \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/chapter\/10.1007\/978-3-319-93779-3_4\">calculus ratiocinator<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a calculating machine that would help us to derive answers to philosophical and scientific questions in a quasi-oracular fashion.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps we are now beginning to realise that vision, with some authors advocating a \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s11229-020-02950-3\">computational philosophy<\/a>\u201d that literally encodes assumptions and derives consequences from them. This ultimately allows factual and\/or value-oriented assessments of the outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>For example, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/polygraphs.sites.northeastern.edu\/\">the PolyGraphs project<\/a> simulates the effects of information sharing on social media. This can then be used to computationally address questions about how we ought to form our opinions.<\/p>\n<p>Certainly, progress in AI has given philosophers plenty to think about; it may even have begun to provide some answers.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" class=\"js-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/235907\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\"\/><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/235907\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" class=\"\" srcset=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p><em><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/anthony-grayling-1556931\">Anthony Grayling<\/a>, Professor of Philosophy, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/northeastern-university-london-6264\">Northeastern University London<\/a> and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/brian-ball-1556935\">Brian Ball<\/a>, Associate Professor of Philosophy AI and Information Ethics, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/northeastern-university-london-6264\">Northeastern University London<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This article is republished from <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/philosophy-is-crucial-in-the-age-of-ai-235907\">original article<\/a>.<\/em>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/philosophy-is-crucial-in-the-age-of-ai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New scientific understanding and engineering techniques have always impressed and frightened. No doubt they will continue to do so. OpenAI recently announced that it anticipates \u201csuperintelligence\u201d \u2014 AI surpassing human abilities \u2014 this decade. It is accordingly building a new team, and devoting 20% of its computing resources to ensuring that the behaviour of such&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":629954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/tnw-blurple?filter_last=1&fit=1280%2C640&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.tnwcdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2024%2F08%2FDesigner.jpeg&signature=b89054e8d5363ed9c6939c9914419906","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-629953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}