Richard Lewis, John R. Anderson Collegiate Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Cognitive Science

Artificial Intelligence: How We Got Here, How It Works, and What It Might Mean for Our Understanding of the Human Mind

Abstract: Can AI systems like ChatGPT help us understand the human mind, or are they "alien intelligences”—technological tools that leverage big data to imitate humans? This talk aims to answer this question, dispelling some common misconceptions about how these systems work along the way, and tracing the history of how AI arrived at this point (spoiler: it wasn't just a sudden development in the tech industry).  I'll argue that modern AI is far more than a tool. It is a source of stunning new scientific hypotheses about the nature of the human mind, and will revolutionize not just technology, but the psychological, cognitive, and brain sciences as well.

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