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PHIL 143.002 – AI and the Future of Humanity: Philosophical Issues about Technology and Human Survival

Instructor: Graham Clay. This course meets TR 2:00 – 3:15 p.m. in PE G050.

The challenges and opportunities presented by advanced forms of technology have many dimensions: ethical, political, practical, metaphysical, and epistemological. In this course, we will focus primarily on the technologies that fall under the heading of “artificial intelligence” (AI), and we will seek to answer a range of questions, including:

  • What tasks and jobs should we use AI to do? (And what can AI do?)
  • What is AI? (And is it different from us?)
  • Could you survive death by uploading your mind to a virtual world?
  • Do we have moral obligations towards AI?
  • Should we care about whether humanity survives into the far future?
  • How should we regulate AI development?
  • Should we minimize the existential risk of AI to humanity? (And how could we?)

While we seek answers to these questions, you will be developing the skills and intellectual virtues to continue to hone your answers through the rest of your life. Throughout, we will make heavy use of AI in the classroom and at home.