Artificial Intelligence: Does Consciousness Matter?

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Elisabeth Hildt¹ 

[1] Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology, United States

关键词: consciousness;    artificial intelligence;    ethics;    robots;    human-robot interaction;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01535

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The question of whether machines can have consciousness is not new, with proponents of strongartificial intelligence (strong AI) and weak AI having exchanged philosophical arguments for aconsiderable period of time. John R. Searle, albeit being critical toward strong AI, characterizedstrong AI as assuming that “. . . the appropriately programmed computer really is a mind, in thesense that computers given the right programs can be literally said to understand and have cognitivestates” (Searle, 1980, p. 417). In contrast, weak AI assumes that machines do not have consciousness,mind and sentience but only simulate thought and understanding.When thinking about artificial consciousness, we face several problems (Manzotti and Chella,2018). Most fundamentally, there is the difficulty to explain consciousness, to explain howsubjectivity can emerge from matter—often called the “hard problem of consciousness” (Chalmers,1996). In addition, our understanding of human consciousness is shaped by our own phenomenalexperience. Whereas, we know about human consciousness from the first-person perspective,artificial consciousness will only be accessible to us from the third-person perspective. Related tothis is the question of how to know whether a machine has consciousness.A basic assumption for artificial consciousness is that it be found in the physical worldof machines and robots (Manzotti and Chella, 2018). Furthermore, any definition of artificialconsciousness given by humans will have to be made from the third-person perspective, withoutrelying on phenomenal consciousness.

【 授权许可】

CC BY