AI Ethics: On Alan Turing’s Intelligent Machine Utopia

Abstract, Bernardo Gonçalves:

Alan Turing made strong statements about the future of machines in society. In this talk, I ask how they can be interpreted to advance our understanding of Turing’s philosophy. His irony has largely been caricatured or minimized, and he is often portrayed as an irresponsible scientist, or associated with childlike manners and polite humor. While these representations of Turing have been widely disseminated, another image – suggested by one of his contemporaries; that of a nonconformist, utopian, and radically progressive thinker reminiscent of the English Romantic poet Percy B. Shelley – has remained largely underexplored.

Bio:

Bernardo Gonçalves is a visiting fellow at King's College, University of Cambridge, and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of São Paulo. He is the author of The Turing Test Argument, forthcoming from Routledge. His research focuses on Alan Turing, the future of machines in society and nature, and the Anthropocene. He holds Ph.D. degrees in Philosophy and in Computational Modeling.