65 – Vold on How We Can Extend Our Minds With AI

Algocracy and Transhumanism Podcast

In this episode I talk to Dr Karina Vold. Karina is a philosopher of mind, cognition, and artificial intelligence. She works on the ethical and societal impacts of emerging technologies and their effects on human cognition. Dr Vold is currently a postdoctoral Research Associate at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Philosophy, and a Digital Charter Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute. We talk about the ethics extended cognition and how it pertains to the use of artificial intelligence. This is a fascinating topic because it addresses one of the oft-overlooked effects of AI on the human mind.

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Show Notes

• 0:00 – Introduction
• 1:55 – Some examples of AI cognitive extension
• 13:07 – Defining cognitive extension
• 17:25 – Extended cognition versus extended mind
• 19:44 – The Coupling-Constitution Fallacy
• 21:50 – Understanding different theories of situated cognition
• 27:20 – The Coupling-Constitution Fallacy Redux
• 30:20 – What is distinctive about AI-based cognitive extension?
• 34:20 – The three/four different ways of thinking about human interactions with AI
• 40:04 – Problems with this framework
• 49:37 – The Problem of Cognitive Atrophy
• 53:31 – The Moral Status of AI Extenders
• 57:12 – The Problem of Autonomy and Manipulation
• 58:55 – The policy implications of recognising AI cognitive extension

Relevant Links

• Karina’s homepage
• Karina at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence
• “AI Extenders: The Ethical and Societal Implications of Humans Cognitively Extended by AI” by José Hernández Orallo and Karina Vold
• “The Parity Argument for Extended Consciousness” by Karina
• “Are ‘you’ just inside your skin or is your smartphone part of you?” by Karina
• Episode 32 – Carter and Palermos on Extended Cognition and Extended Assault
• “The Extended Mind” by Clark and Chalmers
• Theory and Application of the Extended Mind (series by me)