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The revenge of the philosophy majors

nytimes.com

41–50 of 292 posts

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#41

When I was in college, a philosophy degree was seen as excellent training for a career in Law.

Both professions require writing detailed, overly specific, reasonably watertight arguments that will be read by only a handful of people, so that tracks

Arguments so watertight that none of them ever agree with each other and have argued for thousands of years without a resolution to even the most basic of questions.

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#43

In summary, AI has tricked a bunch of philosophy majors into not only thinking it's more than linear algebra but changing their entire life trajectories because of their confusion. AI seems to be a very alluring tar pit for the non-technical. The sad part is how this negative externality of AI is being actively encouraged for political ends.

The strange part is that they seemed to have tricked AI companies too.

[deleted]

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#44
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both professions require writing detailed, overly specific, reasonably watertight arguments that will be read by only a handful of people, so that tracks

Arguments so watertight that none of them ever agree with each other and have argued for thousands of years without a resolution to even the most basic of questions.

The appearance of a logical argument is easier to achieve and often good enough for their purposes (publishing papers, winning lawsuits).

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#45
I find it a bit strange to assume you can only understand these topics with a philosophy degree. My CS degree had a good chunk of philosophy baked in (philosophy of science) and parts of it strongly encouraged you to dive into philosophy. AI 101 introduced me to Gödel for example and logic in general.

From the article it seems like they mostly do "is AI conscious" and ethics work. Call me a skeptic (no pun intended) but it looks like "hiring some philosophers to confirm the things we want to keep saying for the sweet AGI-race-$$$ to flow". Kind of like these tobacco studies way back when.

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#46

When I was in college, a philosophy degree was seen as excellent training for a career in Law.

Both professions require writing detailed, overly specific, reasonably watertight arguments that will be read by only a handful of people, so that tracks

Using a vocabulary that is known only to themselves.

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#48
post #17

I would much rather hear that they were hiring theoretical logicians than philosophers.We could use more people exploring the limits of prepositional and propositional logic and set theory than we need philosophy. AI is never going to become conscious, at least not the kind we have right now.

You do realize that propositional logic, set theory, and mapping the limits of formal systems are philosophy, right? You're literally describing mathematical logic and philosophy of language.

Logicians' training is so different from philosophers' that it should be considered a separate discipline, or under the branch of computer science.

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#49
post #18

"the demand for philosophers with A.I. training is, if anything, outstripping the supply right now. It’s an area I encourage students to go into"... There's about 20 philosophers employed by AI labs worldwide , vs 1000s of software engineers, product managers, designers, etc. There's probably more economists working in these labs than philosophers...

Starbucks employs orders of magnitude more philosophers than any AI labs.

Ok, you got me. It took me a minute.

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#50
post #38
post #18

"the demand for philosophers with A.I. training is, if anything, outstripping the supply right now. It’s an area I encourage students to go into"... There's about 20 philosophers employed by AI labs worldwide , vs 1000s of software engineers, product managers, designers, etc. There's probably more economists working in these labs than philosophers...

If the AI is digesting all the philosophy material ever published then why do they need philosophers?

knowing all the philosophy every published is not being a philosopher

there was literature about 15 years or so ago stating Philosophy as being an uncommonly lucrative course of study, in part citing Reid Hoffman

it is a way of thinking

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