Fwd: Call for Participants: Foundational Research on the Nature of Intelligence - Honorarium Available
ISHPSS
-------- Forwarded Message --------
| Subject: | Call for Participants: Foundational Research on the Nature of Intelligence - Honorarium Available |
|---|---|
| Date: | Sat, 17 May 2025 13:04:35 -0400 |
| From: | Caribbean Center for Collective Intelligence <in...@cc4ci.org> |
| To: | isr...@gmail.com |
Call for Participants: Foundational Research on the Nature of Intelligence - Honorarium Available
Dear Researchers in Philosophy of Science,
We are launching a crucial research initiative aimed at addressing fundamental questions surrounding the nature of intelligence, with significant implications for our understanding of both biological and artificial cognition, and particularly for navigating the challenges of advanced AI. We are seeking the expertise of philosophers of science to participate in a thought experiment and analysis, for which an honorarium of $1000 to $2000 USD will be paid, commensurate with the depth and quality of your contribution.
The core of this experiment revolves around examining the question that if intelligence is general problem-solving ability, or the potential ability to solve any problem in general, does the lack of an explicit functional model of intelligence inhibit our ability to reliably insert more intelligence into the process of solving our most existential challenges, regardless of whether you believe those to be AI alignment, poverty, climate change, war, or anything else? What if it was the single most important existential threat in some time frame? Without an explicit functional model of intelligence, could we reliably converge on a more intelligent assessment of whether or not this is true? If so, is the lack of an explicit functional functional model of intelligence potentially an existential threat in itself?
The numbers of theories surrounding intelligence, implementations of intelligent systems, and related concepts appear to be increasing rather than converging. If there is some possibility that a functional model of intelligence is of foundational importance to human civilization, this inability to achieve converge is potentially itself an existential risk. Accordingly, this experiment will focus on the outcome oof defining a process capable of more reliably discovering and validating any more rigorous framework for understanding and evaluating intelligence itself.
We invite you to critically engage with the following concepts and questions:
Core Concepts for Consideration:
-
Concept of Intelligence: What constitutes a robust and comprehensive definition of intelligence?
-
Axiomatic Model of Intelligence (AMI): Can we define a minimal set of fundamental axioms that any system must satisfy to possess general problem-solving ability (true intelligence) in the cognitive domain?
-
Explicit Functional Model of Intelligence (FMI): Can we define a minimal set of core functions that any system must possess to achieve general problem-solving ability (true intelligence) in the cognitive domain?
-
Specifications for the FMI: Focusing more on FMI due to the likely possibility that no closed set of axioms can describe adaptive problem-solving (intelligence) in open knowledge domains in which novelty might be encountered, what are the essential requirements that a valid FMI must fulfill? What might a candidate architecture for such an FMI look like?
-
AGI/GCI in Relation to FMIs/AMIs: How do current and/or proposed Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) at the individual level, or General Collective Intelligence (GCI) at the group level, relate to these potential functional or axiomatic models? Are they attempts to implement such models, or are they pursuing intelligence without a clearly defined foundational model?
Key Questions for Your Analysis:
-
Convergence vs. Proliferation: Are current approaches to AI development and our understanding of intelligence converging towards a more coherent truth, or are they proliferating without a clear framework for comparison and validation?
-
The Necessity of a Model for Problem-Solving: Without a robust model of intelligence, how can we effectively enhance our problem-solving capabilities, particularly in critical areas like AI alignment?
-
AI's Internal Understanding of Intelligence: Under what conditions could an AI recognize and communicate a truly intelligent model it discovers internally? Under what conditions could humans understand such a model, especially if it differs significantly from human cognition?
-
Complexity and Human Understandability: Is a minimally valid model of intelligence necessarily human-understandable? What are the implications if AI discovers highly complex, non-human-understandable models? How would the propagation of such models among AI systems impact our ability to align them with human values?
-
The Reliability of Consensus: Can we rely solely on consensus to determine the validity or importance of concepts related to intelligence, especially in the face of novelty?
-
Testing for Intelligence: Are current one-shot tests adequate for assessing true general intelligence, particularly the ability to learn and adapt in open domains? Do we need recursive, multi-shot testing paradigms?
-
The Urgency and Priority of Foundational Research: What are the most compelling reasons for a collective human effort to define a higher-resolution concept of intelligence, an axiomatic model, and a functional model? How does the priority of this effort compare to addressing other existential risks, considering the potential for a functional model to exponentially enhance problem-solving abilities (for both good and ill)?
-
The Significance of Existing Proposed Models: At least one functional model of intelligence has been proposed. What is the priority of developing a robust process for discovering, evaluating, and validating such existing and future models?
Call to Participate:
We invite you to contribute your philosophical rigor and expertise to these critical questions. Your analysis should aim to provide insightful perspectives on the nature of intelligence, the importance of a foundational model, and the urgency of a collective effort to develop and validate such a model. We are particularly interested in arguments that address the epistemological and methodological challenges involved.
To express your interest in participating and receive further details about the specific requirements and timeline for your contribution, please reply to this email in...@cc4ci.org.
We believe that the insights from the philosophy of science community are essential for navigating the complex landscape of intelligence research and ensuring a beneficial future for humanity. We look forward to your valuable contributions.
Sincerely,
Andy E. Williams
Caribbean Center for Collective Intelligence (CC4CI)