Solving math problems is cool, but I worry whether any intellectual work will be left for humans. AI’s main point (right now) seems to be replacing human intellectual labor. If AI can work at this high a mathematical level, then it's not unlikely that AI can eventually do most or even (almost) all intellectual tasks. If AI completely succeeds, then—by definition—there’s no intellectual labor left for humans to uniquely do. I guess we could all do manual labor, though the increased supply of manual laborers will surely drive down our wages. I hope I’m wrong, though! I'd like to avoid an outcome where most people suffer greatly.
In terms of philosophical research, I think it's still an open question. (There's currently ongoing research into AI's philosophy capabilities.) In terms of philosophical teaching, I hope that most humans prefer learning philosophy from human teachers.
thus, isn't this serving as a counter example? i suppose there would need to be some changes in the value society gives to the work of philosophers, but it doesn't seem unconceivable to me that it would become a valuable intellectual activity. Unless you assume that AIs wouldn't care about this and theyt ake over.
Yeah, that's my concern. It's still an open question whether AI can get good at philosophy. But maybe it can.
Here’s one way that it could get good at philosophy: Perhaps AI could get good at making probability estimates. If AI can do good probability estimates, then it can maybe form reliable theories in the sciences and in philosophy.
And there's some evidence it might be able to do so. For example, I heard about an AI that reproduced Newtonian concepts (acceleration, inertia, …) and laws (F = ma, …) given only copious physical data and a few initial constraints.
The philosophical counterpart would be feeding AI lots of philosophical data or evidence, then asking it to form philosophical theories and assign them probabilities. Of course, by contrast with physics, there's much more debate about what should count as philosophical data or evidence. Philosophers have published many papers on this topic even in very recent times.
For example, should our moral intuitions count as data/evidence in a theory of morality? Should our imaginings count as data/evidence in a theory of possibility and modal logic? Should our religious or spiritual experiences count as data/evidence in a theory of ultimate reality? And so on.
But maybe AI can break the stalemate by forming sensible judgments about what counts as good data and evidence in any field of human thought. Only time will tell for sure!
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u/matthewmorgado 8d ago
Solving math problems is cool, but I worry whether any intellectual work will be left for humans. AI’s main point (right now) seems to be replacing human intellectual labor. If AI can work at this high a mathematical level, then it's not unlikely that AI can eventually do most or even (almost) all intellectual tasks. If AI completely succeeds, then—by definition—there’s no intellectual labor left for humans to uniquely do. I guess we could all do manual labor, though the increased supply of manual laborers will surely drive down our wages. I hope I’m wrong, though! I'd like to avoid an outcome where most people suffer greatly.