Redefining Humanity: Agency and Experience

Advances in artificial intelligence and computing technology are happening at breakneck speed. Yet even the best A. I. today still falls short. Whether it's a frustratingly unhelpful chatbot, the uncanny valley of immersive virtual reality, or the nonsensical answers of ChatGPT.

Are these glitches a short-term problem? Or is there something about human experiences that make them impossible to program?

In today’s episode, a computer scientist and an experimental philosopher discuss just that. In this Forum event from 2013, you’ll hear from Rosalind Picard (MIT) and Joshua Knobe (Yale). In a conversation moderated by neuroscientist Nii Addy (Yale), Roz and Joshua attempt to define what it means to be human, discuss how agency and experience shape our view of others, and how we ought to fight against dehumanization.

Thank you to the forum planning team at Yale for making this event possible.

• Find additional resources and quotes on the podcast episode page here.