Great Philosophical Objections to Artificial Intelligence : The History and Legacy of the AI Wars

This book surveys and examines the most famous philosophical arguments against building a machine with human-level intelligence. From claims and counter-claims about the ability to implement consciousness, rationality, and meaning, to arguments about cognitive architecture, the book presents a vivid history of the clash between the philosophy and AI. Tellingly, the AI Wars are mostly quiet now. Explaining this crucial fact opens new paths to understanding the current resurgence AI (especially, deep learning AI and robotics), what happens when philosophy meets science, and the role of philosophy in the culture in which it is embedded. Organising the arguments into four core topics - 'Is AI possible', 'Architectures of the Mind', 'Mental Semantics and Mental Symbols' and 'Rationality and Creativity' - this book shows the debate that played out between the philosophers on both sides of the question, and, as well, the debate between philosophers and AI scientists and engineers building AI systems. Up-to-date and forward-looking, the book is packed with fresh insights and supporting material, including: - Accessible introductions to each war, explaining the background behind the main arguments against AI - Each chapter details what happened in the AI wars, the legacy of the attacks, and what new controversies are on the horizon. - Extensive bibliography of key readings Cover page 1 Halftitle page 2 Series page 3 Title page 4 Copyright page 5 Contents 6 List of Figures 8 Prologue: The AI Wars and Beyond 9 Part I The AI Wars, 1950 to 2000 12 Introduction 14 The First War: Is AI Even Possible? 18 1 Gödel and a Foundational Objection to AI 20 1. Introduction: Advances and Naysayers 20 2. John Randolph Lucas: AI’s First Naysayer 21 3. Gödel’s Theorem 22 4. What is Really Proved in Section 3. 23 5. An Objection to Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem 23 6. Lucas’ Objection Against AI 24 7. Does Lucas’s Argument Work? 25 8. Conclusion 26 2 How Would We Know If a Computer Was Intelligent? The Turing Test is Not the Answer 28 1. Computing Machinery and Intelligence 29 2. The Turing Test and the Imitation Game 30 3. What is Intelligence? 31 4. Subjectivity and Vagueness in the Turing Test: The Duck Test 33 5. Irrelevant Aspects of Intelligence 35 6. Attributions of Our Vague Notion of Intelligence 36 7. Modern Turing Tests 38 8. The Story of Mulan 42 9. The Turing Test as an Experiment 43 10. Using the Word ‘Intelligence’ 45 11. Machines Cannot be Intelligent: Turing’s Replies 47 12. The Argument from Consciousness 48 13. The Argument from Various Disabilities 49 14. The Lady Lovelace Objection 50 15. Magical Versus Reductive Explanations. 51 16. Conclusion 52 The Second War: Architectures for Intelligence 54 3 How Computer Science Saved the Mind 56 1. Denying the Mind 56 2. Reclaiming the Mind: Logical Empiricism and Behaviourism Fail. 60 3. Reclaiming the Mind: Computer Science and AI Supply the Missing Key. 61 4 Implementing an Intelligence 68 1. Four Contenders 68 2. SYMBOL PROCESSORS 69 3. CONNECTIONIST AND ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS 76 4. EMBODIED, SITUATED COGNITION AND DYNAMIC SYSTEMS 84 Second War Supplement 4.1: Quantum Architectures 93 The Third War: Mental Semantics and Mental Symbols 96 5 The Strange Case of the Missing Meaning: Can Computers Think About Things? 98 1. Introduction: Semantic Meaning and Intelligence 99 2. The Problem of Meaning 99 3. The Unintelligent Machine 102 4. The Meaningless Machine 103 5. Must the Meaningless Machine be Unintelligent? 110 6. Aboutness as Interacting with the World: The Robot Pencil Sharpener 112 7. Some Lessons from the Robot Sharpener 115 8. The Physical Symbol System Hypothesis 116 9. Aboutness is Doing 117 10. Consciousness: What is it? 119 11. The Relation Between Aboutness and Consciousness 121 12. A New Problem: What is Consciousness for? The Standoff 122 13. Resolving the Standoff: Two Jobs for Consciousness 124 14. The Vexed Task of Implementing Consciousness 130 15. Conclusion to the Third War 132 Third War Supplement 1 132 Examples of Unintelligent AI: Monointelligence is not real intelligence 132 Third War Supplement 2 134 Standard Answers to the Chinese Room Argument 134 Third War Supplement 3 135 Semantics and Causation 135 Third War Supplement 4 136 Problems with Consciousness 136 Third War Supplement 5 142 A Recent Skirmish in the AI Wars: Conscious Machines 142 Third War Supplement 6 143 The Chinese Room and the Fantastic Voyage Variation 143 The Fourth War: Rationality, Relevance, and Creativity 146 6 What is Relevant to What? The Frame Problem 148 1. Introduction: Why are Humans so Smart? 148 2. AI’s Failure: Predicting it versus Explaining it 150 3. How the Frame Problem Got Its Name: The Dream of Mechanization. 152 4. How the Frame Problem Got Its Name: Logic and AI. 154 5. The Frame Problem Comes into Focus. 157 6. The Frame Problem Metastasizes 160 7. How Ignoring the ‘Philosophy ’Frame Problem Limits AI to Monointelligences 165 8. The Dark Truth about the Frame Problem: There is no Solution, but there are Victims 166 9. The Bright Truth about Humans: We have ways of handling the Frame Problem . . . sometimes 169 Fourth War Supplement 6.1 170 Analogy, Creativity, and the Frame Problem 170 Part II Beyond the AI Wars: Issues for Today 176 Introduction 178 7 What about Consciousness? 182 1. Introduction 182 2. Intuitions and Zombies 183 3. Navigating the Linguistic Minefield 188 4. Who’s Afraid of Automaticity? 197 5. One Kind of Thinking or Two? 201 6. Flat Phenomenology 204 7. What is the ‘Consciousness War’ About? 206 8 Ethical Issues Surrounding AI Applications 208 1. Introduction 208 2. AI Ethics and the New AI Wars 211 3. AI is Dead! Long Live the AI App 214 4. Actual AI wars: Semi-Autonomous and Autonomous Weapons 2 215 5. Autonomous Vehicles 221 6. Conclusion 228 9 Could Embodied AIs be Ethical Agents? 230 1. Introduction 231 2. Why Metaphysics Matters to Ethics (Broadly) 231 3. Consciousness, Metaphysics of Mind, and Ethics 232 4. Ethical AI (and AI Ethics) is a Hot Mess 235 5. Traditional AI Ethics: Hard Coding Ethical Rules 236 6. Consciousness as Ethical Grounding 238 7. When is a Robot a Moral Agent? 240 8. The Role of Consciousness in Artificial Ethical Agents 246 9. The Ethical Status of Artificial Agents – With and Without Consciousness 247 10. The Better Robots of our Nature 249 11. Bodies – Finally 250 12. Embodiment 252 13. Why We Need Bodies in AI Ethics 255 14. The Social Life of Embodied Ethical AIs 262 15. Artificial Phronēsis 266 16. How Can We Ethically Trust AI and Robotic Systems? 271 17. Conclusion 273 Conclusion: Whither the AI Wars? 274 Notes 276 Bibliography 286 Index 310 Winner of the 2022 CHOICE Outstanding Academic TitlesThis book surveys and examines the most famous philosophical arguments against building a machine with human-level intelligence. From claims and counter-claims about the ability to implement consciousness, rationality, and meaning, to arguments about cognitive architecture, the book presents a vivid history of the clash between the philosophy and AI. Tellingly, the AI Wars are mostly quiet now. Explaining this crucial fact opens new paths to understanding the current resurgence AI (especially, deep learning AI and robotics), what happens when philosophy meets science, and the role of philosophy in the culture in which it is embedded. Organising the arguments into four core topics -'Is AI possible','Architectures of the Mind','Mental Semantics and Mental Symbols'and'Rationality and Creativity'- this book shows the debate that played out between the philosophers on both sides of the question, and, as well, the debate between philosophers and AI scientists and engineers building AI systems. Up-to-date and forward-looking, the book is packed with fresh insights and supporting material, including: - Accessible introductions to each war, explaining the background behind the main arguments against AI- Each chapter details what happened in the AI wars, the legacy of the attacks, and what new controversies are on the horizon.- Extensive bibliography of key readings "This book surveys the most famous philosophical arguments against building a machine with human-level intelligence. From claims and counter-claims about the ability to implement consciousness, rationality, and meaning to arguments about cognitive architecture, it presents a vivid history of the clash between philosophy and AI. With introductions to each war and further readings, this forward-looking book is packed with fresh insights and supporting material"-- Provided by publisher