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SG - The Artificial Among the Intelligent
Is it possible to build something intelligent? This question has long been at the center of the AI debate, polarising those who believe that machines can genuinely think and those who believe they merely simulate thought.
Both sides, however, share a narrow understanding of intelligence, as an individual and human capacity. Inspired by research on diverse intelligences, this talk challenges that assumption and reframes the AI question altogether. Viewing intelligence as a social phenomenon rather than an individual capacity shifts our focus from trite comparisons between the inner workings of neural networks and the human brain, towards considering that AI technologies owe their intelligence to mimicking collective activity through patterns in large datasets. Likewise, accepting that intelligence is not unique to humans but exists across the biosphere draws our attention towards the ecological conditions of AI and other intelligent ways of being.
About lecture series Intelligence? Plants, Planets, Computers
Until relatively recently intelligence was seen as something uniquely human, the one defining trait that set us apart from the rest of nature. But already Charles Darwin (The Descent of Man (1871)) seriously considered that other creatures might be intelligent too. Nowadays this idea has sparked a ripple effect. There’s growing research on sentient plants, clever fungi, cunning bacteria etc. Some researchers even ask whether ecosystems or entire planets might be considered intelligent. And now, with the rise of artificial intelligence, we no longer hesitate to call machines intelligent.
In this series we question the use of the word intelligence by looking at its strengths and limitations across different fields. Maybe intelligence is simply a measure of adaptability: a capacity to survive and respond across a wide range of environments? Or is this too broad and do we need a more strict definition?