In general Artificial Intelligence (AI) is regarded with both a lot of skepticism as well as suspicion. Religious groups point out the blasphemy in the attempt to create AI and Hollywood feeds the fear by portraying robots mainly as creatures that seek to destroy humanity. Recently the website of CNN had a page on the dangers of 'Artilect' as they call it; a warning that humans might well not be the dominant species on this planet anymore by the end of the 21st century. This paper will not really deal with such statements but will merely touch such matters a few times and hopefully make the ridicule of them clear. The paper will focus on what has really happened in the field of AI, seen mainly from a philosophical point of view. It will try to show the great impact the research has had in understanding intelligence and consciousness and what the implications are. In fact, discussing AI means discussing the way we believe the world as we know is constructed. It is therefore closely related to the evolution of science and has involved countless leading philosophers and scientists of the day.
This paper will start out by giving a brief research history in the field of AI, that basically started after the Second World War. Connections to the changes in the way we perceive reality by the 'invention' of quantum physics and chaos theory will be made. After that different points of view towards the subject of AI will be regarded; by discussing several of the contributors to the discussion about AI; Daniel C. Dennett, Roger Penrose, Hubert Dreyfus and Stephen Toulmin. Then some consequences and the current state of the investigation into AI will be discussed. Finally I will give a personal view on the subject.
Two points must be made on forehand. In history, many definitions of intelligence and consciousness have been given. Defining the terms easily means making a statement about it. The two are very much intertwined, and often (also in this paper) when using AI, artificial consciousness is also implied. Nevertheless, I will in principle use the following definitions which I believe are generally accepted (because of their vagueness?): Intelligence is the capability of reasoning rationally, and consciousness is the ability of self-recognition of that reasoning. I will carefully try to avoid using the term artificial life, since it seems to me that after the observation by Aristotle, that 'possessing life implies nourish itself and decay', the definitions have only diverged. Secondly, I am of opinion that a few pages will never suffice to cover all the important matters. But that is not the point of the paper. The point is to present a picture of study into AI and to discuss the main philosophical implications and controversies.