technology
TagSay Hello to this Philosopher’s ExTRA
Appropriately enough, Luciano Floridi (Yale), known for his work in the philosophy of information and technology, may be the first philosopher with a… well, what should we call this thing? (more…)
Reviving the Philosophical Dialogue with Large Language Models (guest post)
“Far from abandoning the traditional values of philosophical pedagogy, LLM dialogues promote these values better than papers ever did.” (more…)
Using Generative AI to Teach Philosophy (w/ an interactive demo you can try) (guest post)
Philosophy teachers—Michael Rota, a professor of philosophy at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), is about to make your teaching a bit better and your life a bit easier. (more…)
Further Progress on Vesuvius Scrolls
“Epicureanism says hi, with a text full of music, food, senses, and pleasure!” (more…)
New Teaching Philosophy with Technology Prize
Oxford University Press and the American Philosophical Association (APA) have teamed up to launch the new “Oxford University Press Teaching with Technology Prize.” (more…)
Teachers: Was the Semester AI-pocalyptic or Was It AI-OK?
A survey conducted at the end of last year indicated that 30% of college students had used ChatGPT for schoolwork. Undoubtedly, the number has gone up since then. Teachers: what have your experiences been like with student use of ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs)? (more…)
Philosophical Uses for LLMs: Modeling Philosophers
Now that OpenAI has made it possible for members of the (paying) public to customize its large language model (LLM), ChatGPT, with special instructions, extra knowledge, and particular combinations of skills, the prospects of using it to create useful, interesting, and maybe even insightful “model philosophers” have improved. (more…)
Philosopher Chosen to Lead Center on “Computation and Just Communities”
Dartmouth University earlier this fall launched its Susan and James Wright Center for the Study of Computation and Just Communities, and named philosophy professor Susan Brison as its inaugural director. (more…)
NEH Creates New Funding for Ethics & AI Research
The Biden administration yesterday called for legislation about and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), the development and implementation of which will involve expertise in the the ethics of AI.
Just afterwards, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) launched a new program funding research on that subject.
Policing Is Not Pedagogy: On the Supposed Threat of ChatGPT (guest post)
“ChatGPT has just woken many of us up to the fact that we need to be better teachers, not better cops.” (more…)
Dennett on AI: We Must Protect Ourselves Against “Counterfeit People”
“Creating counterfeit digital people risks destroying our civilization.”
Legislation Makes Ethical and Societal Issues Part of NSF Award Process
Philosophers may find new opportunities for working with scientists owing to legislation passed last year that makes how projects address their ethical and societal effects a more important factor in how the National Science Foundation (NSF) awards grants. (more…)
Minds, Models, MRIs, and Meaning
“AI Is Getting Better at Mind-Reading” is how The New York Times puts it. (more…)
A Petition to Pause Training of AI Systems
“We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.” (more…)
Thinking about Life with AI
“What kind of civilization is it that turns away from the challenge of dealing with more… intelligence?” (more…)
Microsoft Jettisons AI Ethics Team
“Microsoft laid off its entire ethics and society team within the artificial intelligence organization,” according to a report from Platformer (via Gizmodo). (more…)
Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Academic Philosophy (guest post)
An undergraduate student in philosophy has been wondering whether their dyslexia gives them a strong reason to avoid pursuing graduate study and a career in academic philosophy. (more…)
Funding for Work on Technologies to Improve Reasoning in Government Intelligence
Steven Rieber, a former philosopher who is now a program manager at Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), a part of the United States government’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is heading up a new research program that might be of interest to philosophers. (more…)
Philosophy, AI, and Society Listserv
Philosophy, AI, and Society (PAIS) is a listserv that aims to “connect philosophers working on AI and related digital technologies, with a particular focus on their societal dimensions.” (more…)
Technology and the Near Future
Apropos last week’s “We’re Not Ready for the AI on the Horizon, But People Are Trying,” here is economist and policy analyst Samuel Hammond on what the near future holds: (more…)
We’re Not Ready for the AI on the Horizon, But People Are Trying
Ongoing developments in artifical intelligence, particularly in AI linguistic communication, will affect various aspects of our lives in various ways. We can’t foresee all of the uses to which technologies such as large language models (LLMs) will be put, nor all of the consequences of their employment. But we can reasonably say the effects will be significant, and ..
Two Cultures of Philosophy: AI Edition
Up for discussion: the following two claims (along with their presuppositions, ambiguities, etc). (more…)
If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them: GPT-3 Edition
“How to deal with GPT-3-written essays? Instead of scolding students not to use it, we ask them to generate a ten, choose the best one, and explain why. Unless they have a paid account, the word-count limit would make it impossible to use GPT-3 to also generate the explanation…” (more…)
Philosophers on the Internet
In today’s irony report, Daily Nous editor Justin Weinberg, who mere days ago announced he would be taking a break from the website, has returned to it to post about, of all things, philosophers on the internet. (more…)
Vallor Wins Covey Award
Shannon Vallor, professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, holder of the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the university’s Edinburgh Futures Institute, and director of its Centre for Technomoral Futures, has been named the winner of the 2022 Covey Award. (more…)
Tech Advice for a New Philosophy Grad Student
A student who will be entering a philosophy PhD program in the fall is seeking advice about hardware and software for his studies. (more…)
Multi-Million Euro Award for Philosopher of Artificial Intelligence
Vincent C. Müller, currently professor of philosophy and ethics of technology at the Technical University of Eindhoven, was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship to support his work on the philosophy of artificial intelligence. (more…)
New Plug-In Improves the SEP Experience
Because the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) is such a valuable philosophical resource, some have been inspired to make it possible for others to work with it in new ways. (more…)