Title of Talk: Worries about AI: Speculative Problems and Foreseeable Problems

Speaker: Dr.Richard Dub

Location: Schweitzer room and on Zoom. We hope you will be able to come in person, but if you can’t, send an email to HumanistGroup@First-Unitarian-pgh.Org to get the link.

Description: We are in the midst of an AI boom. Predictions and promises about how, and whether, AI will transform various aspects of society are rampant. In this talk, I’ll present some of the history of AI that led to this moment, and I’ll give a simple overview of how neural networks and large language models work, pointing out features that people perceive to be weaknesses, biases, or limitations of current systems. I’ll then discuss various fears and worries that people have about AI — practical problems, humanistic concerns, as well as more speculative and outlandish anxieties — with reference to the way that AI actually works.

Bio of speaker: Dr. Richard Dub has a doctorate in philosophy of mind from Rutgers University and an MA in philosophy from Tufts University. For four years, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Swiss Center of Emotion Sciences in Geneva, Switzerland, where he worked on the relationship between emotions, delusions, consciousness, and value. He has taught at the university level for over a decade, including courses on artificial intelligence and philosophy of science, most recently at Clarkson University. Dr. Dub has given talks in twelve different countries and at over forty different universities on topics related to the philosophy of mind, philosophy of emotion, and artificial intelligence.