A more human approach to artificial intelligence (2024)

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  • Correction 16 August 2019

Philosopher Andy Clark reflects on what it will take for artificially intelligent agents to become more capable.

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    1. Michael Segal is a writer and editor-in-chief of Nautilus magazine.

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Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? When Andy Clark, a philosopher at the University of Sussex, UK, asked this question in the 1990s, it was a world without deep learning or smartphones. As technology has developed, his argument that the boundary between cognition and the environment is porous has deepened. He spoke to Nature about the state of intelligence research and how a truly intelligent machine needs not only a mind, but also a body.

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Nature 571, S18 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02213-3

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

This article is part of Nature Outlook: The brain, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 16 August 2019: An earlier version of this Q&A gave the wrong affiliation for Andy Clark.

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  • Part of Nature Outlook: The brain

  • Decoding the neuroscience of consciousness

  • How to map the brain

  • The four biggest challenges in brain simulation

  • Neanderthal clues to brain evolution in humans

  • Exploring the human brain with virtual reality

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