What good is all this wonderful generative AI if we can’t trust it? And by that, I don’t mean AI watermarks, certificates of authenticity, and all that technical stuff. <\/p>\n\n
I’m taking a more fundamental approach right now (sorry about that)… and over the past few weeks, I’ve been delving deeply into the topic of AI from a different angle\u2014philosophy. It’s a fascinating subject. <\/p>\n\n
And I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that we finally need to take AI out of the \u201ctechnology\u201d box. It\u2019s not about whether AI is intelligent or \u201cknows\u201d anything. Rather, what\u2019s important is that we\u2019re already dealing today with an entire knowledge infrastructure through which knowledge is generated, verified, processed, and utilized\u2014whether we like it or not. <\/p>\n\n
We all do it. ChatGPT and similar tools churn out knowledge that sounds correct. <\/p>\n\n
We must therefore focus instead on determining under what conditions human trust in AI-generated statements can be established\u2014and when such trust is even justified.<\/p>\n\n
We humans have learned to accept knowledge from credible witnesses (whether direct or indirect)\u2014because something is in the newspaper, because a teacher told us so, because a judge ruled that way, and so on. And the intriguing question is, after all, what does it take for AI to assume such a role?<\/p>\n\n
I believe that, at a minimum, the following criteria must be met:
It is precisely at these points that computer science and philosophy intersect. And that is both right and important! I am convinced that we need to \u201cjoin forces\u201d here, talk to one another, and learn from each other in order to develop viable solutions. <\/p>\n\n
And I\u2019m also convinced that we need to view generative AI as an epistemic infrastructure\u2014with all that entails in terms of evidence, authority, trust, and reliability. That\u2019s much more important than all the technical stuff. Philosophy has been dealing with this for ages, and we should make use of that in computer science (P.S.: and vice versa, by the way). <\/p>\n\n
If you’re in the mood for a mental journey, I’ve written it down here: http:\/\/www.stefan-wagenpfeil.de\/public\/Vertrauen_im_Zeitalter_generativer_KI.pdf <\/p>\n\n
And if you’re interested in an interdisciplinary exchange\u2014you’re always welcome!<\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"