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Articles

Artificial Consciousness: Our Greatest Ethical Challenge

Paul Conrad Samuelsson takes the perspective of the computer for a change.

Debate about cutting-edge technological advancements is philosophy à la mode. At the forefront is artificial intelligence, which looks set to become the greatest technological leap in history. No one can comprehend the extent of its possible uses; but among the feats already carried out by merely semi-intelligent software are beating the world’s best human players at chess, diagnosing cancer patients more reliably than trained oncologists, writing music that listeners can’t distinguish from the human-composed, and reading and commenting on extensive legal contracts in seconds. The potential applications of AI are so astounding that it seems we’ll be in a position to outsource all manual work, creative problem-solving, even intellectual labour, in less than a century. It is the greatest promise of our time.

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