Unpacking LLM-mindedness, a Cognitive Science Speaker Series Presentation

Speaker: Alessandra Buccella, Ph.D.

Title: Unpacking LLM-mindedness

Short Bio: Alessandra Buccella is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University at Albany. Her main areas of expertise are the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of artificial intelligence. Her current research focuses on articulating the ethical and societal implications of AI technologies within a framework centered on the notion of human flourishing. She is also interested in exploring how Large Language Models ‘think’ and whether their internal structures and processes resemble or approximate human cognition in any significant ways.

Abstract: Do AI systems like ChatGPT or Claude (aka Large Language Models, or LLMs) have minds? Some philosophers think they might. According to these philosophers, LLMs’ internal information-processing structures bear some functional similarities with mental representations and, therefore, might be seen as having “intentionality” – a notion many consider the “mark” of anything mental or psychological. In this talk, I try to disentangle the question of LLM-mindedness itself from the specific assumptions those who are open to the possibility make regarding the very notion of intentionality. Once these assumptions have been properly made explicit, I shall argue that, depending on how one understands the notion of intentionality, the very question of whether LLMs have minds is either meaningless or calls for an answer that is, at best, philosophically uninteresting.

ASL-English interpreters have been requested. Light refreshments will be provided.

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