Functions and Representations in AI Systems
A workshop on Functions and Representations in AI Systems
The concepts of function and representation are widely invoked in the cognitive and life sciences. An influential philosophical tradition, teleosemantics, proposes to ground representation partly in biological functions and ground functions in historical selection processes. While this remains a leading approach, the account has faced challenges, ranging from the notorious "swampman" objection, to more recent disputes about the nature of functional and representational explanation in scientific practice.
Independently, the recent wave of developments in artificial intelligence has sparked questions about the representational capacities of AI models, e.g. what, if anything, can large language models represent? The emerging field of mechanistic interpretability is replete with function- and representation-talk. But is this talk justified? Are AI models subject to selection processes, in the proper sense? And are the concepts of representation and function deployed here the same as those invoked in the life sciences? Are standard philosophical frameworks adequate for the case of AI? Or should we look elsewhere, e.g. to theorising about artefacts? And what role, if any, do human norms and intentionality play in grounding AI functions and content?
This will be an in-person only event – online participation is not possible.
Confirmed speakers include
- Rosa Cao (Stanford)
- Marc Artiga (València)
- Dimitri Coelho Mollo (Umeå)
- Jumbly Grindrod (Reading)
- Alessandro Corona Mendozza (Aarhus)
- Louise Daoust (Eckerd)
- Eliot Du Sordet (Neuchâtel)
- Fabian Hundertmark (Valencia)
- Fintan Mallory (Durham)
- Augustas Pinkevičius (Vytautas Magnus)
- Annika Schuster (TU Dortmund)
- Iwan Williams (Copenhagen)
- Cameron Yetman (Toronto)
- Michela Ghezzi (Eindhoven/Cambridge)
Registration
You can now register to attend our workshop on Functions and Representations in AI Systems, held in Copenhagen, Denmark November 16th–17th.