Philosophy of AI

  • Posted on: 27 November 2017
  • By: Juho Vaiste

I got a change to give my first presentation on philosophy of AI from the wide perspective, not focusing on ethics only. I am just starting with the understanding mind-body problem in a deeper meaning and still have a long way to go with reading the earlier works on the topic. However, it remains the basic and fundamental topic related to AI and the possible effects on philosophy are massive.

I think it's crucial that we continue the discussion and research related to the mind-body problem. AI and robots have already radical ethical impacts and for me it's not impossible to think AI as a limited moral agent - at least soon in the future. I feel that consciousness might be just a short distance away from that. 

I will continue keeping this discussion alive in Finland. Helsinki is an important centre of AI technology development and the underlying philosophical premise seems to be radically that it is not possible to development consciousness through programming techniques. That is dangerous, because I don't know how well even it was acknowledged that it would be possible to develop limited moral agents through programming.

This "Helsinki premise" is presented especially by the associate professor of Uni Helsinki Teemu Roos and computer scientist Ella Peltonen.

Content of the presentation:
- History and current development and research
- Mind-body problem
- Practical ethical issues
- Robot ethics vs. machine ethics