{"id":378092,"date":"2019-04-30T16:54:09","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T20:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=378092"},"modified":"2019-05-02T11:53:57","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T15:53:57","slug":"jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Filtering the patterns that matter to us\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artificial intelligence may be the province of machines, but it also reveals much about the human intelligence it mimics. Looking to replicate and expand on our mental abilities in artificial intelligence systems, we turn an engineer\u2019s eye on our own intellects, says philosopher Jens Kipper.<\/p>\n

He joined Rochester\u2019s faculty this year, as an assistant professor of philosophy. He specializes in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of language.<\/p>\n

Kipper bolsters Rochester\u2019s research prowess in fundamental philosophical questions related to thought and language, says Randall Curren, chair of the Department of Philosophy,<\/a> while also strengthening opportunities for collaboration with the departments of linguistics<\/a> and computer science<\/a>, and the Goergen Institute for Data Science<\/a>. \u201cAt one end of the philosophy of artificial intelligence spectrum are questions about the nature of intelligence, and at the other end of the spectrum are immensely important questions about the social and ethical aspects of artificial intelligence,\u201d Curren says. Kipper spans both.<\/p>\n

He earned his PhD in philosophy at the University of Cologne in 2012 and later joined the faculty at the University of Bielefeld in Germany. At Cologne and Bielefeld, he taught courses on such topics as perception, scientific explanation, consciousness, and mental content. He\u2019s the coauthor of Research Ethics: An Introduction<\/em>, with Thomas Fuchs and others (Metzler, 2010) and the author of A Two-Dimensionalist Guide to Conceptual Analysis <\/em>(Ontos, 2012).<\/p>\n

Answers with Jens Kipper<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s a kind of information that we call objective.<\/strong> For example, the city of Rochester\u2019s geographic coordinates. It\u2019s true no matter where you are or what your point of view is.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also another kind, which we can call \u201cself-locating\u201d information. <\/strong> It locates you in relation to something else. For example, if I say you and I are two meters apart, that tells us something about our relation to each other. The truth of that statement depends on your location, and when you move through time and space, it changes. Much of the information we get is self-locating.<\/p>\n

Two-dimensional semantics is a theory of meaning and information content that is useful in characterizing how the objective and the self-locating information we receive are coordinated.<\/strong>\u00a0A big part of my work involves understanding exactly how this works.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a topic that is important for artificial intelligence. <\/strong> Think of a self-driving car. It has to navigate its environment. It\u2019s receiving GPS information, and that\u2019s objective. But it also needs information about its relation to the cars around it\u2014that\u2019s self-locating information. And the car has to integrate all of that.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d think machines are neutral, or even beautifully objective. … They\u2019re going to perpetuate our biases; it\u2019s a big issue.<\/div>\n

One thing that I think is interesting about artificial intelligence is that it gives us a different perspective on ourselves.<\/strong> When we\u2019re trying to understand how we should build something that solves a certain problem, we are also considering ourselves from an engineer\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n

Intelligence involves data compression.<\/strong> It\u2019s a term from computer science. For example, you take a picture and then you compress it so that you can keep it using less storage space. Human cognition is all about compressing data. Every second, our senses get huge amounts of information from our environment. We can\u2019t attend to all of it, and much of it isn\u2019t very important to us.<\/p>\n

But seeing important patterns is absolutely crucial in cognition, and it\u2019s a central reason why artificial systems have struggled with these kinds of tasks.<\/strong> Here\u2019s an example: the first time a computer beat the world chess champion in a game of chess was 1997. At that time, computers struggled to recognize faces. Intuitively, you\u2019d probably think playing chess was a more sophisticated problem for the computer to solve. After all, small children recognize faces, but they don\u2019t play chess. But a major problem in facial recognition is that a face has so many different features\u2014and the crucial part is focusing on the right kind of features. We\u2019ve evolved to be particularly good at compressing data. We\u2019re good at filtering the patterns that matter to us.<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence involves many ethical issues.<\/strong> I have a background in applied ethics, and I\u2019ve introduced a course on the philosophy of artificial intelligence. I\u2019m talking with students about the future of jobs, and privacy, and biases. For example, when you train an artificial neural network, you need to provide a lot of data. But our society has racial and gender biases, and that\u2019s reflected in the data we\u2019re putting in machines. They\u2019re going to perpetuate our biases; it\u2019s a big issue. You\u2019d think machines are neutral, or even beautifully objective. But they\u2019re also the product of the information they get. If the data is biased, that will be reflected in the judgments that machines make\u2014and we might not even notice.<\/p>\n

One thing I immediately noticed when I came to Rochester, and to the philosophy department, is that people are very open to interdisciplinary collaboration.<\/strong> There are universities where people in the sciences or engineering, for example, say, \u201cOh, philosophers\u2026.\u201d And I haven\u2019t had that experience at all. Much of my work closely connects with other fields. But I\u2019m not a computer scientist, and when I work on artificial intelligence, it\u2019s really important to connect with people who have a certain expertise and exchange information with them. In Germany, I taught an artificial intelligence course, but it was for philosophy majors. Here, I have a mix of students\u2014computer science majors, philosophy majors, engineering majors, economics majors. Artificial intelligence connects to so many different things, and it\u2019s nice not to have a uniform cohort of students.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also going to be teaching a new course on philosophy and science fiction.<\/strong> When the topic you\u2019re teaching is very theoretical, it\u2019s not always easy for students to find a way in. But if you have a fictional text where the characters face certain kinds of problems that are philosophically relevant, it\u2019s more vivid. It\u2019s a version of the \u201cthought experiments\u201d that philosophers often use, and I\u2019ve found it\u2019s a great way of teaching philosophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Epistemologist Jens Kipper has joined the University\u2019s Department of Philosophy, bringing with him a focus on the nature of intelligence that spans the fields of philosophy, computer science, and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":752,"featured_media":378202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[24292,21482,16072],"class_list":["post-378092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-culture","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-department-of-philosophy","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Filtering the patterns that matter to us\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Epistemologist Jens Kipper has joined the University\u2019s Department of Philosophy, bringing with him a focus on the nature of intelligence.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Filtering the patterns that matter to us\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Epistemologist Jens Kipper has joined the University\u2019s Department of Philosophy, bringing with him a focus on the nature of intelligence.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-30T20:54:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-05-02T15:53:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fea-Jens-Kipper.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kathleen McGarvey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kathleen McGarvey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kathleen McGarvey\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/442b2a3bb25330f6067579b6ae13adbb\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018Filtering the patterns that matter to us\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-30T20:54:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-02T15:53:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1056,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/fea-Jens-Kipper.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"artificial intelligence\",\"Department of Philosophy\",\"School of Arts and Sciences\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Society & Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018Filtering the patterns that matter to us\u2019\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/fea-Jens-Kipper.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-30T20:54:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-02T15:53:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/442b2a3bb25330f6067579b6ae13adbb\"},\"description\":\"Epistemologist Jens Kipper has joined the University\u2019s Department of Philosophy, bringing with him a focus on the nature of intelligence.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/fea-Jens-Kipper.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/fea-Jens-Kipper.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"Epistemologist Jens Kipper has joined the University\u2019s Department of Philosophy, bringing with him a focus on the nature of intelligence that spans the fields of philosophy, computer science, and artificial intelligence. (University of Rochester photo \\\/ J. Adam Fenster)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u2018Filtering the patterns that matter to us\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/\",\"name\":\"News Center\",\"description\":\"University of Rochester\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/442b2a3bb25330f6067579b6ae13adbb\",\"name\":\"Kathleen McGarvey\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/author\\\/kmcgarvey\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u2018Filtering the patterns that matter to us\u2019","description":"Epistemologist Jens Kipper has joined the University\u2019s Department of Philosophy, bringing with him a focus on the nature of intelligence.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u2018Filtering the patterns that matter to us\u2019","og_description":"Epistemologist Jens Kipper has joined the University\u2019s Department of Philosophy, bringing with him a focus on the nature of intelligence.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/","og_site_name":"News Center","article_published_time":"2019-04-30T20:54:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-05-02T15:53:57+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fea-Jens-Kipper.jpg","width":1000,"height":600,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kathleen McGarvey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kathleen McGarvey","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/"},"author":{"name":"Kathleen McGarvey","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/442b2a3bb25330f6067579b6ae13adbb"},"headline":"\u2018Filtering the patterns that matter to us\u2019","datePublished":"2019-04-30T20:54:09+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-02T15:53:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/"},"wordCount":1056,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fea-Jens-Kipper.jpg","keywords":["artificial intelligence","Department of Philosophy","School of Arts and Sciences"],"articleSection":["Society & Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/","name":"\u2018Filtering the patterns that matter to us\u2019","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fea-Jens-Kipper.jpg","datePublished":"2019-04-30T20:54:09+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-02T15:53:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/442b2a3bb25330f6067579b6ae13adbb"},"description":"Epistemologist Jens Kipper has joined the University\u2019s Department of Philosophy, bringing with him a focus on the nature of intelligence.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fea-Jens-Kipper.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fea-Jens-Kipper.jpg","width":1000,"height":600,"caption":"Epistemologist Jens Kipper has joined the University\u2019s Department of Philosophy, bringing with him a focus on the nature of intelligence that spans the fields of philosophy, computer science, and artificial intelligence. (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jens-kipper-philosophy-artificial-intelligence-378092\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u2018Filtering the patterns that matter to us\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/","name":"News Center","description":"University of Rochester","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/442b2a3bb25330f6067579b6ae13adbb","name":"Kathleen McGarvey","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/author\/kmcgarvey\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/752"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378092"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379192,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378092\/revisions\/379192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}