One of the things I think about a lot, and ask my biologist/anthropologist/philosopher friends, is: what does it take for something to be actually recognised as human-like by humans? For instance, I see human-like cognition and behaviour in most mammals, but this seems to be resisted almost by instinct by my human friends who insist that humans are superior and vastly different. Why don’t we have a large appreciation for anthill architecture, or whale songs, or flamingo mating dances? These things all seem human-like to me, but are not accepted as forms of “fine art” by humans. I hypothesize that we may be collectively underestimating our own species-centrism, and are in grave danger of doing the same with AI, by either under-valuing superior AI as not human enough, or by over-valuing inferior AI with human-like traits that are shortcomings more than assets.
How do we prove that an AI is “human-like”? Should that be our goal? Given that we have a fairly limited knowledge of the mechanics of human/mammalian cognition, and that humans seem to have a widespread assumption that it’s the most superior form of cognition/intelligence/behaviour we (as a species) have seen?
One of the things I think about a lot, and ask my biologist/anthropologist/philosopher friends, is: what does it take for something to be actually recognised as human-like by humans? For instance, I see human-like cognition and behaviour in most mammals, but this seems to be resisted almost by instinct by my human friends who insist that humans are superior and vastly different. Why don’t we have a large appreciation for anthill architecture, or whale songs, or flamingo mating dances? These things all seem human-like to me, but are not accepted as forms of “fine art” by humans. I hypothesize that we may be collectively underestimating our own species-centrism, and are in grave danger of doing the same with AI, by either under-valuing superior AI as not human enough, or by over-valuing inferior AI with human-like traits that are shortcomings more than assets.
How do we prove that an AI is “human-like”? Should that be our goal? Given that we have a fairly limited knowledge of the mechanics of human/mammalian cognition, and that humans seem to have a widespread assumption that it’s the most superior form of cognition/intelligence/behaviour we (as a species) have seen?