On the Metaphysics of Digitalization
Julian Nida‐Rümelin, Nathalie Weidenfeld · 2022
The danger in dealing with artificial intelligence is that simulation is confused with realization. This already leads us to use an inappropriate vocabulary, according to which software systems have “perceptions” and “make decisions.” For example, when the navigation system commands “Turn right,” we attribute an intention to the system, namely, to make us turn right. But as things stand, that is, at the current state of digital technologies, this would be a mystification. Software systems do not will, feel, think, decide. Humans however do. It is them who are not determined by mechanical processes. Thanks to their capacity for insight as well as their ability to have feelings, they can determine their actions themselves, and they do this by deciding to act in this way and not in another. This is what discerns us from robots.