Date: November 22, 2024 (Friday) Speaker: Ms Sarah Jeong, Journalist Chair: Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong Abstract: Generative AI is now a ubiquitous feature of consumer electronics, incorporated even into smartphone photography. As photographs and other forms of media become trivially easy to doctor, the social consensus around what documentary evidence is […]
What Was a Photograph? Read More »
Date: December 4, 2024 (Wednesday) Speaker: Dr Henry Shevlin, University of Cambridge Chair: Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong Organizers: AIH Lab and IDEAS-IDS Abstract: Recent rapid progress in artificial intelligence has prompted renewed interest in the possibility of consciousness in artificial systems. This talk argues that this question forces us to confront troubling methodological challenges
AI and the future of consciousness science Read More »
Date: December 7, 2024 (Saturday) Speaker: Dr Karina Vold, University of Toronto Chair: Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong Organizers: AIH Lab and IDEAS-IDS Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly able to outperform humans at specific tasks, such as beating world champions at Go and solving 50-year-old grand challenges in biology. I argue that humans can
Epistemic opportunities: AI Systems as Cognitive Scaffolding Read More »
Date: March 26-27, 2025 (Wednesday, Thursday) Organizer: AI & Humanity Lab Recurrence, Rational Choice, and the Simulation Hypothesis Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong What’s hidden inside predictively successful deep learning models?Prof Darrell Rowbottom, Lingnan University Counterfactual Explanations in AI: A Tension between ‘Causality’ and ‘Plausibility’ Prof Jiji Zhang, The Chinese University of Hong
Philosophy of AI in Asia Workshop Read More »
Date: November 15, 2024 (Friday) Speaker: Dr Raphael Milliere, Macquarie University in Sydney Chair: Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong Abstract: Recent advancements in artificial intelligence have been largely driven by deep learning. However, deep neural networks (DNNs) are often characterized as inscrutable “black boxes”: while we can study their performance on various tasks, we
Illusions of Understanding in Deep Learning Read More »
Date: December 9-10, 2024 (Monday, Tuesday) Organizers: AIH Lab and IDEAS-IDS Alien Contents and Alien Metasemantics (with Prof Joshua Dever) Prof Herman Cappelen, The University of Hong Kong Prof Joshua Dever, The University of Texas at Austin Aliens, Octopuses, and Robots, Again Prof Lawrence Shapiro, University of Wisconsin-Madison Aliens, Octopuses, and Robots, Again Prof Thomas Polger, University of
The Linguistic and Cognitive Capacities of LLMs Read More »
Date: November 1, 2024 (Friday) Speaker: Michael Frank, Founder and CEO, Seldon Strategies and 2430 Fellow, 2430 Group Chair: Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong Abstract: In the artificial intelligence era, national governments are going to great lengths to support their domestic AI ecosystems. But how much can governments actually achieve? In this talk, titled “Strategic
Strategic Determinism: the Limitations of Governments in Shaping AI Development Read More »
Date: November 8, 2024 (Friday) Speaker: Dr Sean Donahue, Australian National University Chair: Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong Abstract: Political philosophers have long been concerned with how to avoid state tyranny, the condition of governments having arbitrary power over citizens. A standard response is that avoiding tyranny requires making power holders conform to
Platform Tyranny, Rule of Law, and Virtual Community Read More »
Date: October 28, 2024 (Monday) Speaker: Prof Carlos Montemayor , San Francisco State University Chair: Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong Abstract: The two prevailing paradigms of artificial intelligence, based on symbolic systems and neural networks, need further refinements in order to qualify as general artificial intelligence. I will argue that the best way to
Two Models of General Artificial Intelligence Read More »
Date: September 17, 2024 (Tuesday) Speaker: Prof David Plunkett , Dartmouth College Chair: Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong Abstract: Consider the following three familiar philosophical issues: the nature of consciousness; what distributive justice requires; and what constitutes knowledge. These issues – as well as countless others throughout many subareas of philosophy – are