What if AI is not actually intelligent? (with Alison Gopnik)

Is AI an intelligent agent, or is there a different way we should be thinking about it? Is it more like a piece of cultural technology? What in the world is a piece of cultural technology — and how would re-thinking this change our next steps? What does any of this have to do with the myth of the Golem, printing presses, Socrates, Martin Luther, or the story of stone soup? Join Eagleman this week with cognitive scientist Alison Gopnik for a new take on a new tech.

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More Information:

H Farrell, A Gopnik, C Shalizi, J Evans (2025). Large AI models are cultural and social technologies. Science 387 (6739), 1153-1156

Inner Cosmos Ep 72: How do you put yourself in other people’s shoes (and can AI do it)? (regarding the Intelligence Echo Illusion)

Silver D, Sutton RS. Welcome to the era of experience. Google AI. 2025 Apr. Google DeepMind.

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