Artificial Intelligence and Plato’s Cave

Artificial intelligence (AI) implemented on the basis of neural networks is compared to human intelligence because it is capable of replacing humans in performing a number of tasks. However, there are important differences that do not allow putting it on the same level as people. The dependence of the modern version of AI on humans lies not only in its origin, technology for its creation and its material embodiment, but also in the tasks it performs and data available to it for analysis. It operates with a system of concepts, abstractions and connections between them that is created by a human being. AI is in the same Plato’s cave as man himself and is limited by a person’s worldview. It does not realize the boundaries of the unknowable. The second important difference between AI and people is its memory effect which makes it similar to Laplace’s demon that is incapable of independent development. And the third difference is due to the technical design of modern AI employed on a computer device that does not have the flexibility of cognitive structures formed in the human brain.

AI, neural network, machine thinking, Plato’s cave, Laplace’s Demon, hallucinations, thermodynamics, dissipative structures