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AI and the Limitations of Imitation In-Person
The Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute invites you to a lecture by Dr. Alida Liberman, SMU Department of Philosophy, marking the 75th anniversary of the publication of the Turing Test. This is the third event in the 2025 Godbey Anniversary Lecture Series.
Seventy-five years ago, Alan Turing described an "imitation game" to test machine intelligence: can a human evaluator tell which answers to questions are produced by the machine and which are produced by a fellow human? Cutting-edge AI large language models such as ChatGPT can arguably pass this Turing test: they appear to perform many language-based tasks as well (or perhaps better) than humans. What does that mean for us? In this lecture, Dr. Liberman will investigate what kinds of goals artificial intelligence can—and can't—help us achieve, and what this tells us about the ends that are worth pursuing in education, the workplace, the arts, and our personal relationships. Dr. Liberman will explore why it remains valuable for us to actually think, write, create, and learn for ourselves, rather than relying on (however realistic) AI imitations of such practices.
Alida Liberman is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at SMU. Her research interests include practical ethics, normative ethics, and the space in between, as well as feminist philosophy. She is also interested in philosophical pedagogy and how to make philosophy classrooms more inclusive. You can find out more about her work at www.alidaliberman.com.
- Date:
- Thursday, March 13, 2025
- Time:
- 5:30pm - 7:15pm
- Time Zone:
- Central Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- Meadows Museum - Jones Great Hall
Join us for a reception in the Founder's Room of the Meadows Museum at 5:30 p.m., followed by the lecture at 6:00 p.m. in Jones Great Hall. Appetizers will be served.
Parking is free for museum visitors. More information about parking can be found at the museum's website.
For more information about the Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute, please visit our website.
Any person who requires a reasonable accommodation on the basis of a disability in order to participate in this program should contact the DCII at dcinterdisciplinaryinstitute@smu.edu at least one week prior to the event to arrange for the accommodation.
Speakers express their own views and not necessarily the views of the DCII or SMU.