Course title
Philosophy and AI
Instructor
Steven Gross, Professor, William H. Miller III Department of Philosophy
Course description
This course explores philosophical issues raised by developments in artificial intelligence. For example, can a machine be conscious? (What is consciousness?) Who is responsible for a bad decision made by AI? What light, if any, do developments in AI shed on age-old debates about nature vs. nurture?
Among others, topics include:
- AI ethics and bias
- AI governance
- Questions of existential risk:
- What risks would AI pose if it had the capacity to be an agent with its own ends, and not have to wait for our prompt?
- AI and creativity:
- Is current AI creative? Can it be? What would you need to add to AI to make it creative? What is creativity, after all?
My own research is on empirically informed philosophy of mind at the intersection of philosophy and the mind-brain sciences. You can think of AI systems as being artificially created model organisms where you can learn a lot about human minds through comparison. Just like we might learn about the human mind by comparing it to the ensemble of behaviors and capacities that an octopus has—how we’re similar and different, and also have very different evolutionary paths—you can do the same with AI.”
Steven Gross, Professor
Student voices
“This course has made me think about how questions of AI are really questions about human qualities and the base elements composing them; the same questions used in animal cognition research. How do we operationally define—and then measure—creativity, belief, desire, and personhood? The results are surprising.”
Adam Adair Wilson ’25 Molecular and Cellular Biology; Philosophy
“Philosophy and AI has encouraged me to think about technology and AI intentionally, pushing me to critically understand their broader societal implications. As a computer science major, this course has been important in expanding my perspective beyond just technical implementation, helping me interact with the social and ethical side of the work I do.”
Meghana Karthic ’25 Computer Science
“This course made me revise my ideas about deeply human concepts like creativity and free will. No matter if we think AI has these or not, these concepts definitely need to be redefined to accommodate machine intelligence.”
Kwan Srijomkwan ’25 Cognitive Science
