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Join us in person for the College of Information Science colloquium brown bag series, featuring Jonas Miklavčič, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Centre for Human-Centred AI and Ethics of New Technologies, University of Ljubljana.
For the last 70 years humans have been working on creating computers that can perform tasks that previously only humans could do. The goal is precisely to make AI systems as human-like as possible. We have succeeded well enough in creating machines that act like humans, that today we find ourselves in a situation where we are often no longer able to successfully distinguish between human and artificial agents. This consequently leads to the fact that it is often difficult to know whether we are interacting with a human being when we witness activities that look human or even present themselves as human. This raises important ethical questions—some common and familiar, but also some new. But it also raises epistemological questions, and we may need to take the problem of other minds in particular seriously again in the field of AI if we are to maintain at least some degree of verifiability of human identity.
In this presentation, Jonas Miklavčič will first look at two practical real-world examples where human activity has been mistaken for computer activity and vice versa. Using the example of the Turing Test and the Reverse Turing Test, he will then discuss all possible forms of “identity games” in which a human or a computer convince each other of their identity and try to prove it in many different ways. In particular, he will highlight the case where, due to the ubiquity of AI, humans today have to prove to other humans that they are really human. We will highlight the social and ethical implications of this situation, in which human identity is no longer taken for granted. In particular, he will highlight the problems of privacy, bias and discrimination, the erosion of trust, self-doubt and self-verification. In the final part, he will look at how today we need to re-examine the possibilities of proving the human mind of the entitywe are interacting with (as a possible way of separating people from computers), and what role epistemology plays in this.
Organizers from the University of Ljubljana Centre for Human-Centred AI and Ethics of New Technologies will also be present to discuss opportunities for collaboration.
About Jonas Miklavčič
Jonas Miklavčič is a researcher and teaching assistant at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Theology. His research focuses mainly on the philosophy and ethics of artificial intelligence. In the context of AI philosophy, he primarily studies the issues of virtual reality, digital traceability and interaction between humans and machines. In the field of ethics, he researches issues related to explainability, transparency, accountability and trust. He has published scientific articles on AI issues in the fields of medicine, global crises and regulation of the field of AI. He has presented papers at international conferences in USA, Scotland, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Italy, Austria, and has given several guest lectures in Slovenia and abroad. He is co-founder and member of the Centre for Human-Centered AI and the Ethics of New Technologies and editor-in-chief of the journal Third Day, published in Slovene.