Maybe that AI university module was helpful
Back in my second year of university, I had chosen to take a module titled “Philosophy of Cognitive Science and AI’. I was under the impression it was all going to be robots and ethical thought experiments. It was not. Very quickly, I discovered that it might have been useful to have a background degree in computer science just to understand some of the words being used, let alone the concepts. We were looking at the philosophy of mind, trying to determine whether the human brain could really be replicated with technology.
At the time, I deemed this module to be a mistake on my part, for not properly looking into the content before deciding to spend a term on the topic. It certainly wasn’t my best grade and I left the module not sure how I would ever use any of it, even if because I really had no clue what had just happened. However, over the past year, when writing about business trends and marketing techniques as a freelancer, my vague knowledge of artificial intelligence has been called upon. Then, one of the greatest bands of all time, ABBA, created a performance experience that draws heavily on the technology of augmented reality, asking questions of can an avatar ever truly be a person?
One cognition theory that I find most relevant in my work writing about AI, is the Turing test. Based on the development of the Turing machine (which followed the very first algorithms to create an output, often used to solve problems according to logical rules), the Turing test aims to distinguish between a person’s mind and a computer. The test does this by using an interrogator who blindly questions both a person and a computer, without seeing or being told which is which. With weak and basic versions of AI, the interrogator would be able to identify which is the computer and which is the person, based on their responses. If the interrogator cannot tell the difference, the computer would be considered to be thinking and fully replicating cognition. This idea is used in Blade Runner and the book it’s based on, ‘Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?’
Generally, in the world of business commerce, it’s unlikely you’ll come across any AI technology able to beat the Turing test. The best chance may be a computer illiterate person using a well-developed chatbot and mistaking it for a customer service representative. Instead, AI is limited to automation and following programmed rules. This is the same with voice assistants. In reality, they aren’t thinking or using any problem-solving ability, but rather following the rules already set for them, generally acting as a talking search engine using the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button.
Applying this principle to ABBA Voyage – the group’s return to performing as younger versions of themselves – raises some interesting thoughts. Could the Turing test be further worked upon to suggest that any avatar or hologram that an interrogator cannot tell apart from a human, therefore is living in some way? At their current stage, these avatars could be seen as weak augmented reality – we can easily tell that they aren’t real people and they are only representations because they have a limited range of action. If you asked the ABBA-tars a question, they wouldn’t hear and would just continue with their setlist as they have been designed and programmed to do. Yet, with this foundation of technology, perhaps walking and talking holograms with their own ability to form questions and respond to answers isn’t so far in the future.
When then applied to dead celebrities, reanimating them in a lifelike way, would this representation become its own person or the original resurrected? Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was already able to piece together its own posthumous Carrie Fisher based on previous footage of her, adding her to the movie. How long before dead actors can not only be added to movies, but can attend the premiers, make speeches, and speak to fans?
Although the vast majority of that module I don’t use regularly (I have never and have no intention of ever using the phrase ‘mentalese’ in an actual sentence outside that term), perhaps the one concept I did get a grasp of was a crucial one. It’s no surprise that the future is going to have more technological breakthroughs and raise further questions about what cognition really is and at what point something becomes a person. Maybe by looking at applications of AI in the real world, my understanding of that module will become slowly clearer. In the end, I didn’t need to learn about robots, because my time was better spent on chatbots and augmented reality avatars.
Find my review of ABBA’s new album here.
Read about what I learned from my university module on Plato here.
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Rebekah's Ramblings 
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