Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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Thinking mechanisms

New Conversation Article: ChatGPT Can’t Think

Will AI ever reach a point where it can independently analyze, think, and transcend itself?

Will AI ever reach a point where it can independently analyze, think, and transcend itself? Furthermore, will it ever become sentient? Some experts in the field, like Blake Lemoine, think AI has already breached the boundaries of sentience. Others, though, remain skeptical. A new article from The Conversation discusses ChatGPT, the Turing test, and the question of consciousness. For Turing, “thinking” meant simply passing the test, but his assumptions were misguided. Philip Goff writes, Turing was wrong, however, when he said the only clear notion of “understanding” is the purely behavioural one of passing his test. Although this way of thinking now dominates cognitive science, there is also a clear, everyday notion of “understanding” that’s tied to consciousness. To understand Read More ›

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creepy TV static

When Disaster Strikes Through the TV

News cycles that profit off constant, sensationalized negativity aren't helping

A hundred years ago it would have been unimaginable to watch a tragedy unfold on the other side of the world. Such news might get peddled via newspaper, or later through radio, but the access we now enjoy to the rest of the world is unprecedented. How is that affecting us? According to this study, covered in an article from The Conversation, televised disaster and tragedy can severely affect the mental health of children to varying degrees. The authors write, Our latest research uses brain scans to show how simply watching news coverage of disasters can raise children’s anxiety and trigger responses in their brains that put them at risk of post-traumatic stress symptoms. It also explores why some children are more Read More ›

hive mind
Artificial intelligence. Network in hive mind brain. Vintage futuristic poster.

Is the “Singularity” Already Here?

Two experts in the tech field warn that the singularity, as we've come to imagine it, might be right around the corner

The singularity refers to the future point when the human and the machine will merge––when the personal and technological distinction breaks down entirely. It sounds dystopian and far off. But, two experts in the tech field warn that the singularity, as we’ve come to imagine it, is right upon us. Writing for The Conversation, John Kendall Hawkins and Sandy Boucher comment, To understand why this isn’t the stuff of fairy tales, we need only look as far as recent developments in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). BCIs are a natural beginning to the singularity in the eyes of many futurists, because they meld mind and machine in a way no other technology so far can. Elon Musk’s company Neuralink is seeking permission from the US Food Read More ›