What Can AI Teach Us About the Human Mind?
Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT are unlike human beings. They have no bodies, human brains or an obvious equivalent of consciousness. Yet they can draw on vast amounts of background knowledge and produce language with remarkable ease. Could this surprising feature of AI help us better understand how our own minds work?
This talk with guest speaker Jeffrey Yoshimi explores how LLMs might illuminate a fundamental feature of human language: our ability to access relevant knowledge automatically, without consciously retrieving facts or rules. Drawing on the philosophy of AI, phenomenology and contemporary cognitive science, the discussion connects the work of Dreyfus, Husserl and Mangan with current debates about artificial intelligence.
The talk will also provide an accessible introduction to how LLMs work and why philosophers are increasingly interested in what they reveal about language, knowledge and the human mind. Join us for an engaging exploration of AI, consciousness, language and what it means to understand.