Make sure that you answer all the questions. Consult appropriate sources - assignments from the book as well as class notes and entries on my web site. Use standard methods of citation.
1) Kasparov is one of the world's undisputed champions in chess. He is not merely a great chess player but, like prodigies in music and mathematics, he is a member of a select, elite class of extremely talented savants. If you studied Kasparov, equipped with psychological metodologies and with all the insights into the workings of the human brain you need, you would still be unable to figure out how he does it. And yet, Kasparov was defeated by the computer program Deep Blue, which IBM had created and had kept perfecting over the years. Initially, Kasparov won a few games and drew a few more. But when man and machine met later, Deep Blue won decisively and resoundingly.
Keep in mind that the way Deep Blue works is ... by brute force: Deep Blue can calculate at least 20 million options or plays per second! Deep Blue then chooses the one play which is the best in view of possible subsequent plays. Deep Blue cannot distinguish between strategic and trivial moves on the part of its opponent: in other words, Deep Blue takes all moves - even nonsensical ones - seriously and runs the 20 million or so computations for each move.
Does the fact that Deep Blue won show that artificial intelligence is the same as human intelligence?
2) Do we need to program Deep Blue not to cheat? In other words, in addition to programming the computer for all permissible moves in the game, do we also have to program the computer not to cheat? Support your answer with appropriate arguments?
2a) Depending how you answered 2, answer the following question: Is the artificial intelligence program a moral agent - like human beings and (for utilitarians) animals are? Explain why you answer the way you do. Make sure that your answer to 2a is consistent with the answer you gave to 2.
Check out the following links - in addition to reading assignments and consulting your class notes:
Artificial and Human Intelligence
Encyclopedic Info on AI
Bibliography on the Philosophical Implications of AI
