The Research Seminar Series in Philosophy invites you to a seminar with Christian Löw and Per Algander who will speak on the topic of "Would Life Be (Less) Meaningful in AI Utopia?".
In “AI utopia,” artificial systems outperform humans at every task, from proving mathematical theorems to governing society, and are effortlessly available. Such a world would bring obvious benefits: tedious work could be automated, scientific progress accelerated, and human welfare improved. Yet many people fear that something important would be lost. This concern is not merely economic or political. Rather, AI utopia appears to threaten the meaningfulness of our lives. In this talk, we use Bernard Suits’s influential account of games as “the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles” to explain what is missing. We argue that one source of meaning in our lives is the opportunity for authentic challenges: challenges that demand the full exercise of our distinctive human capacities to achieve worthwhile ends. AI utopia would eliminate such challenges. Since AI could achieve any outcome more easily and effectively than humans, our capacities are no longer needed to accomplish worthwhile ends. People could still make activities difficult by deliberately refusing AI assistance. But they would then be voluntarily taking on unnecessary obstacles, thus making the activities game-like. Hence, what is missing from AI utopia is the need for humans to exercise their distinctive capacities in order to achieve worthwhile ends.
All interested are welcome to attend this seminar.
This seminar is intended primarily for presentations of PhD work and other research in philosophy conducted at the Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies. Guest lectures sometimes take place in the seminar as well. The seminars are given in English and all interested are welcome to attend these events.
Learn more about the seminar series in Philosophy and upcoming events
