In this episode I talk to Dr Karina Vold. Karina is a philosopher of mind, cognition, and artificial intelligence. She works on the ethical and societal impacts of emerging technologies and their effects on human cognition. Dr Vold is currently a postdoctoral Research Associate at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Philosophy, and a Digital Charter Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute. We talk about the ethics extended cognition and how it pertains to the use of artificial intelligence. This is a fascinating topic because it addresses one of the oft-overlooked effects of AI on the human mind.

You can download the episode here or listen below. You can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Stitcher and a range of other podcasting services (the RSS feed is here).

Show Notes

• 0:00 – Introduction


• 1:55 – Some examples of AI cognitive extension


• 13:07 – Defining cognitive extension


• 17:25 – Extended cognition versus extended mind


• 19:44 – The Coupling-Constitution Fallacy


• 21:50 – Understanding different theories of situated cognition


• 27:20 – The Coupling-Constitution Fallacy Redux


• 30:20 – What is distinctive about AI-based cognitive extension?


• 34:20 – The three/four different ways of thinking about human interactions with AI


• 40:04 – Problems with this framework


• 49:37 – The Problem of Cognitive Atrophy


• 53:31 – The Moral Status of AI Extenders


• 57:12 – The Problem of Autonomy and Manipulation


• 58:55 – The policy implications of recognising AI cognitive extension

Relevant Links

• Karina’s homepage


• Karina at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence


• “AI Extenders: The Ethical and Societal Implications of Humans Cognitively Extended by AI” by José Hernández Orallo and Karina Vold


• “The Parity Argument for Extended Consciousness” by Karina


• “Are ‘you’ just inside your skin or is your smartphone part of you?” by Karina


• Episode 32 – Carter and Palermos on Extended Cognition and Extended Assault


• “The Extended Mind” by Clark and Chalmers


• Theory and Application of the Extended Mind (series by me)