"Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind", Susan Schneider, 2019

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"Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind", Susan Schneider, October 1, 2019

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Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind, Susan Schneider

Oct 24, 2019

A sober-minded philosophical exploration of what AI can and cannot achieve

In Artificial You, Susan Schneider says that it is inevitable that AI will take intelligence in new directions, but urges that it is up to us to carve out a sensible path forward. As AI technology turns inward, reshaping the brain, as well as outward, potentially creating machine minds, it is crucial to beware. Homo sapiens, as mind designers, will be playing with “tools” they do not understand how to use: the self, the mind, and consciousness. Schneider argues that an insufficient grasp of the nature of these entities could undermine the use of AI and brain enhancement technology, bringing about the demise or suffering of conscious beings. To flourish, we must grasp the philosophical issues lying beneath the algorithms.

At the heart of her exploration is a sober-minded discussion of what AI can truly achieve: Can robots really be conscious? Can we merge with AI, as tech leaders like Elon Musk and Ray Kurzweil suggest? Is the mind just a program? Examining these thorny issues, Schneider proposes ways we can test for machine consciousness, questions whether consciousness is an unavoidable byproduct of sophisticated intelligence, and considers the overall dangers of creating machine minds.

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Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind | Susan Schneider | Talks at Google

Nov 17, 2019

Susan Schneider, NASA's Baruch Blumberg Chair of Astrobiology and director of the AI, Mind, and Society groups at the University of Connecticut, explores pressing philosophical questions about consciousness, selfhood, ethics, and humanity.

In this talk -- and her book, "Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind" -- Schneider questions whether consciousness is an inevitable byproduct of sophisticated intelligence and considers the risks and promises of creating machine minds.

The future of the mind: Exploring machine consciousness | Dr. Susan Schneider

Nov 17, 2019

- The hard problem of consciousness, as coined by the philosopher David Chalmers, asks: Why must we be conscious? Given that the brain is an information processing engine, why does it need to feel like anything to be us?

- The problem of AI consciousness is equally complicated. We know humans are conscious, but when it comes to AI, the question is: Could the AIs that we humans develop be conscious beings? Could it feel like something to be them? And how could we possibly know for sure, short of them telling us?

- How might superintelligence render consciousness extinct? Over 6 chapters in this video, philosopher and cognitive scientist Susan Schneider explores the philosophical problems that underlie the development of AI and the nature of conscious minds.

Susan Schneider is the NASA/Baruch Blumberg Chair at the Library of Congress and NASA, as well as the director of the AI, Mind and Society Group at the University of Connecticut. Her work has been featured by the New York Times, Scientific American, Smithsonian, Fox TV, History Channel, and more. Her two-year NASA project explored superintelligent AI. Previously, she was at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton devising tests for AI consciousness. Her books include The Language of Thought, The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, and Science Fiction and Philosophy.

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Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind

Apr 3, 2020

Susan Schneider discusses her new book, "Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind," with the Library's Becky Clark. The book is an exploration of what artificial intelligence can and cannot achieve. Humans may not be Earth's most intelligent beings for much longer: the world champions of chess, Go, and Jeopardy! are now all AIs. Given the rapid pace of progress in AI, many predict that it could advance to human-level intelligence within the next several decades. From there, it could quickly outpace human intelligence. What do these developments mean for the future of the mind? In "Artificial You," Schneider says that it is inevitable that AI will take intelligence in new directions, but urges that it is up to us to carve out a sensible path forward. As AI technology turns inward, reshaping the brain, as well as outward, potentially creating machine minds, it is crucial to beware. Homo sapiens, as mind designers, will be playing with "tools" they do not understand how to use: the self, the mind, and consciousness. Schneider argues that an insufficient grasp of the nature of these entities could undermine the use of AI and brain enhancement technology, bringing about the demise or suffering of conscious beings. To flourish, we must grasp the philosophical issues lying beneath the algorithms.

- Rebecca Brasington Clark is the director of publishing at the Library of Congress.

- Susan Schneider is the Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration and Scientific Innovation in the Library's John W. Kluge Center.