01/07/2024

What Generative AI Reveals About the Human Mind

Understanding what AI says about our natural intelligence

Generative AI—think Dall.E, ChatGPT-4 and many more—is all the rage. Its remarkable successes, and occasional catastrophic failures, have kick-started important debates about both the scope and dangers of advanced forms of artificial intelligence.

But what, if anything, does this work reveal about natural intelligences such as our own?

I’m a philosopher and cognitive scientist who has spent their entire career trying to understand how the human mind works. Drawing on research spanning psychology, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, my search has drawn me towards a picture of how natural minds work that is both interestingly similar to, yet also deeply different from, the core operating principles of the generative AIs. Examining this contrast may help us better understand them both.

Please select this link to read the complete article from TIME.