As part of the lecture series for newly appointed colleagues at the Institute of Social Sciences, Petra Vidaković Cvetković will deliver a lecture devoted to the theoretical possibilities of attributing social cognition and a minimal conception of personal identity to artificial agents based on deep learning.
The lecture entitled “Social Cognition and the Possibility of Personal Identity in AI Agents” addresses the relationship between social cognition and artificial systems, with a particular focus on the application of specific models of social cognition to artificial agents based on deep neural networks. The starting assumption of the lecture is that the modeling and implementation of capacities for social cognition have significant implications for the status of personhood in artificial intelligence.
In the introductory part of the lecture, the conceptual framework of social cognition advocated by Cameron Buckner will be presented and analyzed, with special attention paid to the relationship between deep learning, rational reasoning, and social interaction. This will be followed by a discussion of the complementary perspective developed by Anna Strasser, whose minimalist approach to social cognition enables theoretical integration with Buckner’s position.
On the basis of this integration, the lecture will consider the possibility of attributing personhood to artificial agents capable of minimal forms of social cognition, thereby opening space for further research into personal identity in the context of contemporary artificial intelligence.
Petra Vidaković Cvetković is a Junior Research Assistant at the Center for Philosophy, Institute of Social Sciences.