Which contemporary American researchers in the philosophy of AI might be considered most significant?

Question

I'm about to start graduate studies with an AI philosopher, and I'm hoping he's considered a leading researcher. Apart from trying to gauge his reputation, I'm trying to become familiar with the research landscape. I am acquainted with only classical work - Searle, Dreyfus and so on. These people are very old now, and I'm sure there's a newer generation of leading researchers.

A great answer would indicate several leading American researchers and provide some context regarding their importance.

A very long list of researchers who have made significant contributions is furnished by AAAI's fellow and award-recipient lists — Joseph Weissman, Jun 08 '12 at 02:19
Yes, but the awards don't seem to be for contributions to the philosophy of AI. — Velvet Ghost, Jun 08 '12 at 03:45
Ah, understood -- that is likely a somewhat shorter list :) by the way, what might you have found out so far? — Joseph Weissman, Jun 08 '12 at 03:49
Rest in peace, Hubert Dreyfus: http://dailynous.com/2017/04/24/hubert-dreyfus-1930-2017/ — MmmHmm, Apr 25 '17 at 06:21

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 22 '12 at 14:48

David J. Chalmers wrote The Singularity, He goes on about what would cause it, what we should do to prepare, etc (the Singularity is the idea that humans may one day upload their mind and therefore their being into the the virtual cloud.

Steve Omohundro, Ph.D. wrote Rationally-Shaped Artificial Intelligence, concerning well, rationally shaped AI (kinda obvious on that one.)

Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk, which goes on about the potential danger we may one day face when our computer finally do become self aware.

I hope that's the kind of information you were looking for concerning the philosophies behind AI. I enjoyed reading them, I forget where I even first heard of them to but I had them on my computer still so they must have been online at some point...

Actually here's Chalmers http://fragments.consc.net/djc/2010/04/the-singularity-a-philosophical-analysis.html

And Omohundro has... Well I can't find the article I have downloaded, not sure why but he does have a website up

Also not sure about where I grabbed the last one. LINK 1

One final resource, http://selfawaresystems.com/ is one I found through Omohundro's website, they have quite a bit of papers on the topic of AI ranging from how (technical) and why (philosophical)

PS: While searching links for you I found this as well, a new one for me to read I hadn't noticed before (or maybe it came out after I last checked, shrugs) Anywho. LINK 2

Hopefully this gets you off to a good start.

I'm a noob here so I couldn't post more then two links, hopefully I can comment these in.
LINK 1 = http://steveomohundro.com/scientific-contributions/ LINK 2 = http://selfawaresystems.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/minds-making-minds.pdf — J. Russell, Jun 22 '12 at 14:48

Which contemporary American researchers in the philosophy of AI might be considered most significant?

1 Answers1