Readings

The readings for this week focus on artificial intelligence:

And its application in automation:

Optional: Intelligence

These articles discuss what artificial intelligence is:

These articles discuss AlphaGo, Watson, Deep Blue, and AlphaZero:

These articles discuss the Turing Test and the Chinese Room thought experiment:

These articles further examine whether or not machines can think:

These articles discuss the fears around artificial intelligence

These articles discuss OpenAI:

Automation

These articles discuss the economic impact of automation:

These articles discuss how artificial intelligence is displacing human workers:

This is a series of podcasts from Planet Money regarding automation:

These articles consider whether the Luddites were right regarding automation:

These articles touch on the political implications of automation:

These articles discuss the idea of a universal basic income:

These articles discuss other ways to address the problems caused by automation:

Questions

Please write a response to one of the following questions:

  1. From the readings, what is artificial intelligence and how is it similar or different from what you consider to be human intelligence?

    • Are AlphaGo, Deep Blue, Watson, and AlphaZero proof of the viability of artificial intelligence or are they just interesting tricks or gimmicks?

    • Is the Turing Test a valid measure of intelligence or is the Chinese Room a good counter argument?

    • Are the growing concerns over the power of artificial intelligence and its role in our lives warranted? Are you worried about the potential dangers imposed by artificial intelligence? Explain why or why not.

    • Finally, could a computing system ever be considered a mind? Have morality? Are humans just biological computers? What are the ethical implications of these ideas?

  2. From the readings, how is automation impacting employment? What are the social, political, and economic implications of replacing human labor with automation on a massive scale?

    • Were the Luddites right about technology and jobs? Should we halt development of automation technology or at least temper it to ensure employment of human laborers, or does automation free humans for other endeavors?

    • Are you comfortable with artificial intelligence taking over work normally performed by humans? How about artificial intelligence performing typically "human" activities such as caregiving, creating artist works, or making life-or-death decisions?

    • Is a Universal Basic Income a viable means of addressing the concerns over loss of employment due to mass automation or is it unnecessary? How does society deal with a future with mass automation and lower employment (or is this not really a problem)? How do we prevent the rich from simply getting richer (or do we even care about preventing that)?

    • Is automation ultimately a good thing or a bad thing for humanity? What are the ethical implications for those who develop and utilize these automation technologies?