A hypothesis that I’d like to investigate is that subjective experiences arise as a consequence of state changes in an algorithm. I provisionally call such state changes information differentials.
AI
Can an AI take responsibility?
A mantra repeated several times at a healthcare conference that I attended recently, is that only humans, not AI, can take responsibility for something. This made me think more deeply about what it really means to take responsibility and what, if anything, sets humans and AIs apart in this respect.
Emergent properties misunderstood
Most systems have the properties they have because they were designed that way, either by humans or by nature, not because they “emerged”.
A segway into information theory
Information theory may be useful for understanding active inference. As a minimum it offers some alternative perspectives on the quantities used in the active inference theory such as surprise, KL divergence, and entropy. This post provides a very short introduction to information theory.
Active inference lecture notes
I have set out to gain some insights into the active inference theory that provides a unified framework for perception, learning, decision making, and action. I will share my “lecture notes” combined with my own comments in this and future posts. My focus is on the mathematical models and the necessary algorithms.
Is artificial intelligence a threat to humanity?
I’m worried about irreversible climate change, nuclear war, war on rationality, isolationism, extreme nationalism, intolerance, pandemics, the declining mental health of the young, religious extremism, bioterrorism, and many other things. AI doesn’t make it to my top 10 list. Why?