large language models LLMs
TagInfluential Ideas in an AI Era
A philosopher often praised for the accessibility of his writing, when asked about it (he often took part in advice sessions for younger academics), would say that he is not writing for today, but for the future. (more…)
Building an AI’s Moral Character (updated)
UPDATE (1/22/26): I’ve reposted this today because Anthropic recently released an official version of what was referred to earlier as Claude’s “soul document.” Anthropic is now calling it Claude’s “Constitution”, and you can see it all here. There appear to be some new elements to it, but I haven’t had time to look it over carefully; readers are welcome to point out..
Which AI’s Might be Conscious, and Why it Matters (guest post)
Large language models like ChatGPT are not conscious, but there are other “serious contenders for AI consciousness that exist today” Furthermore, “AI development will not wait for philosophers and cognitive scientists to agree on what constitutes machine consciousness… There are pressing ethical issues we must face now.” (more…)
AI Development and Consciousness
“The system which is now beginning to design its successor is also increasingly self-aware and therefore will surely eventually be prone to thinking, independently of us, about how it might want to be designed.” (more…)
Human vs. AI in Logic Tasks: a Study
Philosopher-turned-software developer Brian Rabern is conducting a study comparing human and artificial intelligence (AI) performance on logic problems, and he is looking for student volunteers to take a short online survey. (more…)
Class Action Lawsuit against AI Firm for Copyright Infringement
If versions of any of your books are on LibGen or similar online collections of pirated material, there is a chance it was used as training data for AI, and you may be able to join a lawsuit about it. (more…)
How Students Use and Think About Their Use of AI
An article from New York Magazine has been making the rounds this week. (more…)
Teaching Humanities in the AI Era: Is this the Bargaining or the Acceptance Stage?
“What, again, is education? The non-coercive rearranging of desire.” (more…)
AI Firm: “Start Cheating”
“Start cheating. Because when everyone does, no one is.” (more…)
Here Come the AI-Powered Bot Students
“We didn’t use to have to decide if our students were human, they were all people. But now there’s this skepticism because a growing number of the people we’re teaching are not real. We’re having to have these conversations with students, like, ‘Are you real? Is your work real?’” (more…)
Professors, How Are You Using AI in Your Day to Day Work?
More outside of academia than within it, one hears things like “in a few years saying ‘I don’t use AI’ will sound as weird as someone today saying ‘I don’t use the internet,'” or “if you’re not using AI, you’re missing out and wasting time.” (more…)
DeepThinking To Some Purpose (guest post)
“Real thinking isn’t about the grammatical structure of a sentence but about the mental state of being curious, puzzled, and actively seeking understanding.” (more…)
Harness AI to Help Your Students Learn Basic Logic (and more) (guest post)
Michael Rota, professor of philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, has been using AI in his teaching, and is trying to make it easy for you to do so, too. (more…)
LLM Chatbots Are Now “Peer-Reviewing” Papers
Just when you thought peer review couldn’t get any worse… (more…)