Can AI systems have free will?
While there has been much discussion of whether AI systems could function as moral agents or acquire sentience, there has been very little discussion of whether AI systems could have free will. I sketch a framework for thinking about this question, inspired by Daniel Dennett’s work. I argue that, to...
| Publicado en: | Synthese Vol. 206; no. 3; pp. 1 - 23 |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
Sep2025
|
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=187514011&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 187514011 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00397857 4LI jtl: Synthese issn: 00397857 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2025 vid: 206 iid: 3 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 187514011 10.1007/s11229-025-05209-x ppf: 1 ppct: 22 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 982KB tig: atl: Can AI systems have free will? aug: au: List, Christian affil: https://ror.org/05591te55 Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, LMU Munich, D-80539, München, Germany sug: keyword: Agency Alternative possibilities Artificial intelligence Autonomy Choice making Daniel Dennett Free will Intentional stance ab: While there has been much discussion of whether AI systems could function as moral agents or acquire sentience, there has been very little discussion of whether AI systems could have free will. I sketch a framework for thinking about this question, inspired by Daniel Dennett’s work. I argue that, to determine whether an AI system has free will, we should not look for some mysterious property, expect its underlying algorithms to be indeterministic, or ask whether the system is unpredictable. Rather, we should simply ask whether we have good explanatory reasons to view the system as an intentional agent, with the capacity for choice between alternative possibilities and control over the resulting actions. If the answer is “yes”, then the system counts as having free will in a pragmatic and diagnostically useful sense. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Synthese is a copyright of Springer, 2025. All Rights Reserved. item: Synthese holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|