Can a machine think philosophically?

What a miracle! A machine thinks like we do, or even better. Why then do we still need philosophy, if technology can give us answers to all its questions? Why do we have to read all these thick old books if the algorithms have already done it for us? Why to endlessly discuss those difficult, often obscure and contradictory philosophical ideas if this wonderful black box can make them perfectly clear and easily comprehensible? Philosophers themselves have often proclaimed the end of philosophy but the Artificial Intelligence has finally made it real! What are we actually supposed to do here in the philosophy class?

First of all, you will learn to doubt, and stop trusting blindly this alien, god-like machine. Secondly, you will ask what the hell are those algorithms, or even better, who are they actually? How and from whom have they acquired the knowledge that we so admire today?

The class will discuss the labor theory of Artificial Intelligence, which understands algorithms as encoded forms of human labor and social patterns. It is the extraction and appropriation of the collective knowledge, data, and behaviors of billions of people that have made them so clever and powerful.

Readings

Matteo Pasquinelli, M. The eye of the master: A social history of artificial intelligence. Verso (2023).

Lydia H. Liu, “After Turing: How philosophy migrated to the AI lab”. Critical Inquiry, 50(1). (2023). https://doi.org/10.1086/726293

Consists in the active participation and contribution (discursive, textual and performative).

The module grading is based on the mentioned contribution, active in-class participation and

• - submission of written assignments (word minimum of 500 total)

 “Students from other departments or universities will be given a place on the course subject to room capacities.”