^CategoryArtificial Intelligence

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 Read More ›

ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI certainly seem impressive. The ability to produce grammatically correct text, workable code, and beautiful pictures has captivated the world and caused some economists to claim they have found the means of accelerating productivity. A Federal Reserve Board governor says she is impressed. Lisa Cook’s speech on September 22, 2023, at the National Bureau of Economic Research Economics of Artificial Intelligence Conference led Bloomberg to publish an article titled “Fed’s Cook Sees Signs of AI Improving US Labor Productivity.” Yet the speech contains no evidence that this is occurring, being filled instead with statements such as, “I am optimistic about broad benefits accruing to the economy and society from the use of generative AI Read More ›

Several years ago, a visiting professor taught an introductory statistics class at Pomona College, where I have taught for more than 40 years. When I asked how the class was going, he said, “At my university students ask how; here they ask why.” Knowing how to do a statistical test is important but more important is knowing why a specific test might be appropriate. During a recent Saturday morning bike ride, I got to thinking about the way that this distinction relates to the limitations of current AI systems. Take something as simple as peddling a bicycle. A robotic bike rider equipped with a powerful AI system might be programmed to peddle or it might be trained to peddle by Read More ›

Artificial intelligence (AI) has come a long way in just the past year since Discovery Institute hosted the previous COSM. After a recent explosion of impressive AI-based “chatbots,” BBC’s Science Focus recently declared that “2023 is the year of artificial intelligence, with AI chatbots emerging as indispensable tools for businesses, individuals, and organisations worldwide.” Thus, COSM 2023 offered an ideal moment to host speaker Ray Kurzweil, a computer scientist, futurist, top Google engineer, and arguably the greatest prophet of AI to ever span the mainstream academic and tech worlds. Future Forecast According to Kurzweil, what we’ve seen so far from AI ain’t nothin’. During his lecture at COSM on Thursday, November 2, Kurzweil repeated forecasts he has made elsewhere that Read More ›