HAI Seminar with Blaise Agüera y Arcas

Much of the discourse around AI frames it as an alien and inscrutable intelligence. But in fact our success at creating "real" AI with general capabilities in the 2020s has come not only by taking many pages from computational neuroscience, but by performing large-scale modeling on human language-- the "DNA" of our collective intelligence. Intelligence does not equate with or arise from optimal performance at any particular task; neither does it arise in isolation, or against the background of a static game-like environment. Rather, it arises through the social modeling of interactions with other intelligent entities.

This talk will explore the deep (and largely positive) implications of reframing intelligence in terms of social modeling, intersubjectivity, and symbiosis. These include new perspectives on life and evolution, the relationship between humans and technology, and even the nature of free will and consciousness.