Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 35, No. 380.
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    [1]    From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
           Subject: 2021 BBC Reith Lectures on AI (24)

    [2]    From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
           Subject: tracking an unattributed quotation (52)


--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2021-12-01 15:11:09+00:00
        From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
        Subject: 2021 BBC Reith Lectures on AI

Some here will be interested in the 2021 Reith Lectures, "Living with
artificial intelligence", delivered by Stuart Russell (Computer Science,
Berkeley) on BBC Radio 4 and downloadable with transcripts. The first of
these, "The biggest event in human history", was broadcast yesterday 
morning (Wednesday 1 December), for which see
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001216j].

The yearly Reith Lectures were inaugurated in 1948 to honour the
contribution to public broadcasting made by Sir John (later Lord) Reith,
first Director-General of the BBC. The first Lecture was delivered by
Bertrand Russell, and thereafter the BBC has done its best to invite
leading figures "to advance public understanding and debate about
significant issues of contemporary interest". See
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00729d9/episodes/player?page=1] for a
list of all available lectures, beginning with Bertrand Russell's.

Yours,
WM

--
Willard McCarty,
Professor emeritus, King's College London;
Editor, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews;  Humanist
www.mccarty.org.uk

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2021-12-01 16:12:24+00:00
        From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
        Subject: tracking an unattributed quotation

In that first Reith Lecture (mentioned above), Stuart Russell raises the
question of intelligence, then says the following:

> To answer this question, the field of AI borrowed what was, in the
> 1950s, a widely accepted and constructive definition of human
> intelligence:
>
> “Humans are intelligent to the extent that our actions can be
> expected to achieve our objectives.”
>
> All those other characteristics of intelligence; perceiving,
> thinking, learning, inventing, listening to lectures, and so on, can
> be understood through their contributions to our ability to act
> successfully.

He buttresses this by quoting Aristotle--"we deliberate not about ends,
but about means..."--from the Nicomachean Ethics. BUT he does not 
give any source for this 'widely accepted' 1950s definition. Does anyone 
here recognise it?

The problem here as I see it is that the criteria of his 1950s 'intelligence' 
exclude a great many kinds of intelligence many of us treasure. He 
invokes two criteria that an intelligent human must satisfy: (1) the person 
must have objectives, of which that person is presumably aware; and 
(2) these must be achievable within the realm of reasonable possibility. 

Note that Aristotle is talking about practical wisdom, "what is in our 
power, what we can do" (1112a-b, ed. Crisp).

Russell then goes on to note that,

> From the very beginnings of AI, intelligence in machines has been 
> defined in the same way:
>
> “Machines are intelligent to the extent that their actions can be expected 
> to achieve their objectives.”

What's happened here tells the same old story, quite the reverse of the 
historical sequence: the machinic mode of intelligence has been used 
to (re)define the human. For all the dangers of AI he hints at, and promises to 
enlarge on, accepting this seems to me the greatest.

Many thanks for any hints as to the origins of that quotation from the 
1950s and for any comments.

Yours,
WM
--
Willard McCarty,
Professor emeritus, King's College London;
Editor, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews;  Humanist
www.mccarty.org.uk


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