On August 1st, 2024, NULab faculty Brian Ball published a co-authored (alongside Anthony Grayling) commentary on The Conversation about AI and how crucial philosophy is to its development and advancement. OpenAI recently announced that it is building a team, comprising machine-learning researchers and engineers, to ensure that AI system behaviors align with human values; in response, Ball poses that philosophers have something valuable to contribute, too. Ball argues that philosophy has been entwined with AI since its inception, and that contemporary philosophy remains relevant to its continued development, asking questions like: Could an LLM truly understand the language it processes? Might it achieve consciousness? Indeed, Ball argues that the determination of what “human values” to align AI with is itself a social, and thus philosophical, question.
You can read the full commentary on The Conversation here: “Philosophy is crucial in the age of AI.”
