Editor’s Note: Mind Matters News is sponsored by the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, a program of the non-profit Discovery Institute. We rely on donations from individuals like you to continue to operate. If you have benefited from Mind Matters News, would you consider an end-of-year donation to support our work in 2024? You can find more about the work of the Bradley Center in 2023 in the article below.

This year the seemingly-miraculous capabilities of ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs) dominated public discussions about artificial intelligence (AI). While many pundits and tech writers openly wondered whether ChatGPT portended humanity’s doom, the Bradley Center provided a clear voice in defense of the continuing need for human ingenuity through its annual COSM summit for tech leaders, its online platform Mind Matters News, and its book publishing efforts.

In November, hundreds of tech executives converged on the Seattle area for the Center’s annual COSM summit. With the theme of “(De)Generative AI?,” this year’s conference analyzed the growing impact of AI in light of ChatGPT and similar applications. The all-star cast of speakers included renowned computer scientist Stephen Wolfram, investors Cathie Wood and Michael Milken, futurist Ray Kurzweil, Caltech scientist Carver Mead, Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Kessler, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, author Michael Shellenberger, and engineer Bob Metcalfe, co-inventor of Ethernet.

One key panel, “The Quintessential Limits and Possibilities of AI,” featured Bradley Center Distinguished Fellow William Dembski and Center Director Robert J. Marks. Marks pointed out that “each jump [in computing ability] was done by humans, not AI. Each jump in AI happened due to human ingenuity.” He and other panelists explained how without continuing human intervention, AI is likely to collapse on itself, eventually producing gibberish.  

Other topics explored during COSM included using AI to address complex global challenges, the economics of AI, the growing dangers of digital censorship, and even whether AI whether AI can make immortality possible.

Over fifty technology, research, and investment companies and organizations were represented by this year’s attendees, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Ford, and Goldman Sachs. Nearly all (98%) of surveyed attendees rated the conference as “excellent” or “very good,” and 76% said they would “very likely” attend COSM in 2024.

Throughout the year, the Center’s media platform, Mind Matters News supplied original reporting, analysis, and podcasts exploring new developments in AI, neuroscience, and tech, and exposing digital censorship and other efforts to misuse technology to undermine human freedom. By year’s end, Mind Matters News will have published 700 new articles and attracted more than 1.6 million users.

Many scientists today assert that the human mind is completely reducible to the brain, which they regard as a machine made of meat. September saw the release of the Center’s major book Minding the Brain, which presented a radically different view. This magisterial anthology featured twenty-five scientists and philosophers who challenge materialist conceptions of mind head-on by drawing on the latest discoveries in psychology, neurology, near-death experiences, and computer science.

Edited by philosopher Angus Menuge, software engineer Brian Krouse, and computer engineer Robert Marks, Minding the Brain boasted an array of first-rate contributing authors, including neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, Yale computer scientist David Gelernter, mathematician William Dembski, philosopher J.P. Moreland, biologist Doug Axe, and neuroscientist Cristi Cooper.

Information theory pioneer Gregory Chaitin called the book “a stimulating collection of contemporary perspectives on a perennial conundrum,” while noted philosopher William Hasker said: “Both materialists and anti-materialists who want to understand the mind should not miss this book.” Neurologist Andrew Knox from the University of Wisconsin may have put it best: “Anyone who has wondered if people are more than a pile of atoms should read this book.”

In the pipeline for release at the end of 2024 is another blockbuster book: The Human Soul by neurosurgeon and Center Senior Fellow Michael Egnor and science writer Denyse O’Leary.