CategoryArtificial Intelligence
Joe McDonald: How AI Can Complement Human Capabilities
Despite its limitations, AI excels in areas where humans struggle, such as analyzing large datasets, identifying patterns, and automating repetitive tasks
Why We Must Not Use AI In Ministry: Response to Jay Owen
An open letter to Jay Owen, a popular proponent of AI in ministry
Beyond the Physical: Exploring the Nature of the Mind
A recent podcast panel challenged the prevailing materialist assumptions about the mind and explored better accounts of the richness of human consciousness
AI and the Destructive Lies of the Tool Trope
You've heard this, right? “Technology isn’t good or bad; it’s a tool, it’s just how you use it that matters.” False.
AI Specialist Explains Why AI Can’t Replicate Human Experience
A profound recent experience crystallized the difference for him between brain and machine
Cognitive Psychology and AI: Exploring Their Intersection
Cognitive psychology can be contrasted with behaviorism because it investigates the black box of mental processes
Why Generative AI Will Not End Up Running the World
Business prof Gary Smith and computer engineering prof Robert J. Marks talk about what we should and shouldn't believe about claims that computers taking over
AGI Is Not Already Here. LLMs Are Still Not Even Intelligent
Recent tests continue to show huge failures in comprehending common sense issues
Can AI Really Code the Value of Humans?
The new book Soulless Intelligence urges that we program all AI systems to treat all humans as infinitely valuable – the only exceptions being criminals and aggressors
Do High AI Startup Valuations Mean Great Success, or Desperation?
The answer is important but is not as clear as we might think. First, let's look at the backgroundConsider a recent news report: “Anthropic is in advanced talks to raise $2 billion in a deal that would value it at $60 billion, more than triple its valuation from a year ago” says the Wall Street Journal. Anthropic’s last venture capital (VC) funding round, less than two months ago, raised $2 billion, bringing its total funding to $9.6 billion. OpenAI had raised $6.6 billion, last October just a year after it raised $10 billion from Microsoft the previous year and just months after it also raised funds on the debt and secondary markets. So that $6.6 billion round was the largest VC funding round ever, a little larger than the $6 billion that Elon Musk’s generative AI startup, xAI, raised in 2023. Read More ›
The AI Bubble: Hype, Reality, and Consequences
In this week's podcast, Pomona College economics prof Gary Smith discusses with Robert J. Marks what generative AI is and isn't good for
Large Language Models (LLMs) Flunk Word Game Connections
Despite hype, ChatGPT and its competitors, in all their iterations, are still just text-generators based on statistical patterns in the text databases they train on
Edge of Sentience Summarizes Research on Animals’, AIs’ Feelings
And animal rights laws as well. But there is a dark side to Jonathan Birch’s approach too…Philosophy prof Jonathan Birch, principal investigator of the Animal Sentience Project at the London School of Economics, has written a book on whether and how animals feel things: The Edge of Sentience (Oxford University Press 2024). It’s not as arcane a topic as it might at first appear. It shows up in new legislation and think tanks. At Amazon, we learn, for example, “In 2021, he led a review for the UK government that shaped the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022. In 2022-23, he was part of a working group that investigated the question of sentience in AI.” And as Birch told Marc Bekoff at Psychology Today, I’m probably best-known for my work on invertebrate sentience, which is one part Read More ›
Mind Matters News: Top Ten Stories of 2024
... with some brief comments on their significance
Evolution Journal Editors Resign After AI Takes Over
Publisher Elsevier seems to have created a lot of extra work for the editors by introducing AI-generated errors into the publishing process
Another Warning That the AI Bubble Is Near Bursting…
AI analyst Gary Marcus: There is no principled solution to hallucinations in systems of this type
In Machines We Trust
In an age of AI, who stands up for humans?If you believe the media, AI has made both of us obsolete. We need to resign ourselves to an age of “thinking machines” in which human guidance and creativity are superfluous. This kind of thinking is false — and dangerous. AI will never become conscious. It will never truly be autonomous. It will always require human input and control. But if we treat AI as if it can be autonomous, we will open the door to the kind of manipulation and tyranny warned about by C.S. Lewis in his classic book The Abolition of Man. Unfortunately, there are few voices in the public square right now offering a sane assessment of both the capabilities and limits of AI. As a Read More ›
First Federal Report on Drone Sightings Flunks Credibility Test
Whether reports are human- or AI-generated, they need careful scrutiny