List, Christian (2025) Can AI systems have free will? [Preprint]
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Abstract
While there has been much discussion of whether AI systems could function as moral agents or acquire sentience, there has been very little discussion of whether AI systems could have free will. I sketch a framework for thinking about this question, inspired by Daniel Dennett’s work. I argue that, to determine whether an AI system has free will, we should not look for some mysterious property, expect its underlying algorithms to be indeterministic, or ask whether the system is unpredictable. Rather, we should simply ask whether we have good explanatory reasons to view the system as an intentional agent, with the capacity for choice between alternative possibilities and control over the resulting actions. If the answer is “yes”, then the system counts as having free will in a pragmatic and diagnostically useful sense.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Keywords: | Free will; Artificial intelligence; Intentional stance; Choice-making agency | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Action Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence > AI and Ethics Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence General Issues > Decision Theory General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism |
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| Depositing User: | Christian List | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 11 Mar 2025 13:17 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 11 Mar 2025 13:17 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 24897 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Action Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence > AI and Ethics Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence General Issues > Decision Theory General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism |
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| Date: | 11 March 2025 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24897 |
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Can AI systems have free will? (deposited 05 Dec 2024 13:08)
- Can AI systems have free will? (deposited 11 Mar 2025 13:17) [Currently Displayed]
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