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Turing Test, Chinese Room Argument, Symbol Grounding Problem. Meanings in Artificial Agents

Menant, Mr Christophe (2012) Turing Test, Chinese Room Argument, Symbol Grounding Problem. Meanings in Artificial Agents. [Conference Paper]

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Abstract

The Turing Test (TT), the Chinese Room Argument (CRA), and the Symbol Grounding Problem (SGP) are about the question “can machines think?”. We propose to look at that question through the capability for Artificial Agents (AAs) to generate meaningful information like humans. We present TT, CRA and SGP as being about generation of human-like meanings and analyse the possibility for AAs to generate such meanings. We use for that the existing Meaning Generator System (MGS) where a system submitted to a constraint generates a meaning in order to satisfy its constraint. Such system approach allows comparing meaning generation in animals, humans and AAs. The comparison shows that in order to design AAs capable of generating human-like meanings, we need the possibility to transfer human constraints to AAs. That requirement raises concerns coming from the unknown natures of life and human consciousness which are at the root of human constraints. Corresponding implications for the TT, the CRA and the SGP are highlighted. The usage of the MGS shows that designing AAs capable of thinking and feeling like humans needs an understanding about the natures of life and human mind that we do not have today. Following an evolutionary approach, we propose as a first entry point an investigation about extending life to AAs in order to design AAs carrying a “stay alive” constraint. Ethical concerns are raised from the relations between human constraints and human values. Continuations are proposed.

Item Type:Conference Paper
Additional Information:Presentation available at http://crmenant.free.fr/IACAP-AISB2012-C.Menant-050712.pdf
Keywords:Turing test, Chinese room argument, Symbol grounding problem, Meaning generation, Meaning Generator system, Artificial intelligence, Ethics
Subjects:Biology > Animal Cognition
Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science > Robotics
Philosophy > Epistemology
ID Code:8716
Deposited By: Menant, Mr Christophe
Deposited On:09 Nov 2012 19:59
Last Modified:18 Feb 2013 15:13

References in Article

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TSC 2010 http://cogprints.org/6831/

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