Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagNatural Intelligence

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Machine learning , artificial intelligence , ai , deep learning and future concept. Wireframe Brain connect with circuit electronic graphic and binary code abstract background.Blue tone
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post
Author
News
Date
August 1, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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The Myth of Artificial Intelligence

Tech entrepreneur Erik J. Larson on why the AI hype is profoundly misplaced
News
August 1, 2023
3
Artificial Intelligence

In today’s featured COSM video, watch author Erik J. Larson discusses ideas underlying his book, The Myth of Artificial Intelligence, as well as what he is exploring in his next book, which focuses on the history of the 21st Century so far. Here’s the summary of the book from Amazon: Futurists insist that AI will soon eclipse the capacities of the most gifted human mind. What hope do we have against superintelligent machines? But we aren’t really on the path to developing intelligent machines. In fact, we don’t even know where that path might be. A tech entrepreneur and pioneering research scientist working at the forefront of natural language processing, Erik Larson takes us on a tour of the landscape Read More ›

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Depressed teenager browsing the internet on his mobile phone as he is lying on his bed in the dark.
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post
Author
News
Date
May 26, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Wisdom

What manner of harms are we creating?
News
May 26, 2023
6
Artificial Intelligence

By Tom Gilson Richard Stevens’ May 11 Stream article, “AI Legal Theories,” suggests we consider making Artificial Intelligence companies legally responsible for the harms they cause. We do that already with consumer products, so in principle it should be possible to do the same with AI. Enforcement would be by civil law. Injured parties would presumably be given standing to sue the source of the harm without having to prove negligence. That gets us somewhere, but not far enough. It settles the question of who is legally responsible. But responsible for what? Specifically, what will we call harm? Who will decide? Based on what standard of wisdom? Stevens gives this example of harm, citing an earlier Stream article by Robert J. Marks: “The Snapchat ChatGPT-powered Read More ›

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cropped shot of robot playing chess on wooden surface
Type
post
Author
Eric Holloway
Date
February 28, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence
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Is AlphaZero Actually Superior to the Human Mind?

Comparing AI and the human mind is completely apples and oranges
Eric Holloway
February 28, 2022
3
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence

The Google-backed AI company DeepMind made headlines in March 2016 when its AlphaGo game AI engine was able to defeat Lee Sedol, one of the top Go players in the world. DeepMind followed up this great achievement with the AlphaZero engine in 2017, which made the remarkable achievement of soundly beating AlphaGo in Go as well as one of the world’s best chess engines in chess. The interesting difference between AlphaGo and AlphaZero is that AlphaGo uses databases of top human games for learning, while AlphaZero only learns by playing against itself. Using the same AI engine to dominate two different games, while also discarding reliance on human games suggests that DeepMind has found an algorithm that is intrinsically superior Read More ›

Herd of African elephants in National Park, Uganda
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 13, 2019
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Elephants Who Fly — or Become “Persons” — Are Magic

Okay, it's impossible. But then why do thinkers who disbelieve the one believe the other?
Denyse O'Leary
August 13, 2019
10
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

For decades, researchers were transfixed with the idea of humanizing great apes by raising them among humans and teaching them language. Emerging from the ruins and recriminations of the collapse, philosophy prof Don Ross has a new idea: Let’s start with elephants instead.

Read More ›
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Be Reasonable written in neon on a brick wall
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post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
May 24, 2019
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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An Atheist Argues Against Reason

And thinks it is the reasonable thing to do
Michael Egnor
May 24, 2019
9
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Justin Smith is leading the way to the abandonment of rationality. There’s not a shred of reason in his essay.

Read More ›
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post
Author
News
Date
January 8, 2019
Categorized
Machine Learning
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Researchers: Deep Learning Vision Is Very Different from Human Vision

Mistaking a teapot shape for a golf ball, due to surface features, is one striking example from a recent open-access paper
News
January 8, 2019
3
Machine Learning
The networks did “a poor job of identifying such items as a butterfly, an airplane and a banana,” according to the researchers. The explanation they propose is that “Humans see the entire object, while the artificial intelligence networks identify fragments of the object.” Read More ›
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Man in a maze
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post
Author
Eric Holloway
Date
November 29, 2018
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind
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Has Neuroscience Disproved Thinking?

A philosopher argues that Nobel Prize-winning research shows that the theory of mind is just another illusion, useful for survival and success
Eric Holloway
November 29, 2018
11
Philosophy of Mind
We've all seen this sort of argument before in many other guises. It is commonly called “reductionism.” The reductionist claims that, because an object can be construed as made up of parts, the object is just the parts. It is like saying that because an article like this one is constructed from letters of the alphabet, the article is only rows of letters. Read More ›
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Leaves of a maple tree
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 29, 2018
Categorized
Natural Intelligence
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Can Plants Be as Smart as Animals?

Seeking to thrive and grow, plants communicate extensively, without a mind or a brain
Denyse O'Leary
November 29, 2018
4
Natural Intelligence

None of the plants' extensive "social life" requires reason, emotion, value systems, mind, consciousness, or a sense of self. It requires only that the plant, like an animal, seek to continue its highly organized existence. But plants' ability to process information for that purpose gives pause for thought.  

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A green lizard eyeing the camera
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post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
November 21, 2018
Categorized
Natural Intelligence
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Yes, Even Lizards Can Be Smart

If you catch them at the right time. But can we give machines what the lizard has by nature?
Mind Matters
November 21, 2018
5
Natural Intelligence
What is it that we want machines to be and do under our guidance that these—often seemingly strange—life forms are and do spontaneously? The life forms do those things to stay alive. Does it matter then that machines are not alive? Read More ›
animal-avian-beach-45603
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post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
November 20, 2018
Categorized
Natural Intelligence
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Crows Can Be as Smart as Apes

But they have quite different brains. The intelligence doesn't seem to reside in the details of the mechanism
Mind Matters
November 20, 2018
4
Natural Intelligence
Studying animals' intelligence has taught us many things. But in some ways, it has deepened the mystery of intelligence. Read More ›
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Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 27, 2018
Categorized
Social Factors
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Will AI triumph?

Will that phone end up smarter than your kid?
Mind Matters
September 27, 2018
2
Social Factors
If so, it might not happen in quite the way we are told to fear. U.S. kids spend more than two hours a day looking at screens "perform worse on memory, language and thinking tests than kids who spend less time in front of a device. Read More ›
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Type
post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
August 16, 2018
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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Screenwriters’ Jobs Are Not Threatened by AI

Unless the public starts preferring mishmash to creativity
Robert J. Marks
August 16, 2018
7
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

An AI-generated film is not an altogether new idea. Rule-based expert systems were used to write short plays over a half century ago, in the early 1960's. Then, as now, don’t expect creativity. That is not what AI does.

Read More ›
Cropped shot of call center operator in headset working and talking with client
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 11, 2018
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Intelligence
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Why machines can’t think as we do

As philosopher Michael Polanyi noted, much that we know is hard to codify or automate
Denyse O'Leary
August 11, 2018
5
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Intelligence
Human life is full of these challenges. Some knowledge simply cannot be conveyed—or understood or accepted—in a propositional form. For example, a nurse counselor may see clearly that her elderly post-operative patient would thrive better in a retirement home. But she cannot just tell him so. Read More ›