The recent rise of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT has raised concerns for many, given its wide-ranging utility and rapid evolution. This prompts the question: Could AI surpass human capabilities in the future?

On Thursday, October 26, Professor Feng Lu from the Center for Eco-civilization at Tsinghua University will visit Yale Center Beijing to discuss the future of artificial intelligence from the philosophical ideas of reductionism and computationalism. Reductionalism posits that complex phenomena can be understood by breaking them down into constituent parts. Computationalism, as an example of reductionism, argues that human consciousness can be explained by dissecting it into the brain (analogous to a computer), the mind (like the program), and cognition (like computation). If computationalism were accurate, it would imply an inevitable future where humans either become "pets" of artificial superintelligence or even robots themselves. However, Lu contends that computationalism may not hold true.