•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most popular albeit divisive topics up for debate today. On the one hand, die-hard proponents of AI believe that AI may one day come close to possessing human-level intelligence or even supersedes it (this view of AI is called strong AI) while on the other, some seem unconvinced of the promises of strong AI and prefer to believe in a weaker form of AI, an AI that might be able to do some functions humans assign to them or simulate basic level of human intelligence. This paper leans more toward the latter’s view. Using critical realism and neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics as its theoretical framework and abduction as a method of reasoning and argumentation, this paper argues that belief in strong AI is misguided and caused by a flaw in the theoretical framework used to understand reality and the human condition, particularly in its ontological and ethical assumptions. On this view, the position of strong AI could not be upheld, since human intelligence is made up of different forms of intelligence including logical/rational, emotional and moral intelligence that could not all be neatly reduced and understood as a form of computation.

Key words: Human Intelligence; Artificial Intelligence; Strong AI; Weak AI; Critical Realism; Neo-Aristotelian Virtue Ethics

References

Aristotle (2009). The Nichomachean Ethics (D. Ross, Trans.). Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Baudrillard, J. (1998). The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. Sage: London.

Bauman, Z. (1993). Postmodern Ethics. Blackwell: Oxford, UK.

Bhaskar, R. (2008). A Realist Theory of Science. Routledge: New York.

Blackmore, S. (2004). Consciousness: An Introduction. Oxford University Press: New York.

Boghossian, P. (2006). Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructionism. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Collier, A. (1994). Critical Realism: An Introduction to Roy Bhaskar’s Philosophy. Verso: New York.

Feyerabend, P. (1993). Against Method (3rd. ed.). Verso: London.

Glenn, J. C. (2025). Why AGI Should be the World’s Top Priority. Horizons: Journal of International Relations and Sustainable Development, 3, 86-95.

Harding, S. (1991). Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women's Lives. Cornell University Press: New York.

Hinton, G. E. (1992). How Neural Networks Learn from Experience. Scientific American, 267(3), 144-151.

Hawkins, J. (2021). A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence. Basic Books: New York.

Hume, D. (2007). An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.

Hursthouse, R. (1999). On Virtue Ethics. Oxford University Press: New York.

Jacobsen, A. (2024). Nuclear War: A Scenario. Torva, Transworld: London.

Kissinger, H. A., Schmidt, E. & Huttenlocher, D. (2021). The Age of AI And Our Human Future. Little, Brown and Company: New York.

Kuss, D. (2017). Mobile Technology and Social Media. Human Development, 60(4), 141-143

Lindberg, J. J. (2001). Analytic Philosophy: Beginnings to the Present. Mayfield Publishing Company: California, USA.

MacIntyre, A. (2007). After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (3rd ed.). University of Notre Dame Press: Indiana.

Manyika, J. (2022). Getting AI Right. Daedalus, 151(2), 5-27.

Molloy, M. (2025, March 7). US lost a fifth of its butterflies within two decades. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyjkn729gpo

More, M. & Vita-More, N. (Eds.). (2013). The Transhumanist Reader. Wiley-Blackwell: UK.

Narayanan, A. & Kapoor, S. (2024). AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t and How To Tell The Difference. Princeton University Press: Oxford, UK.

Ober, J. & Tasioulas, J. (2024). The Lyceum Project: AI Ethics With Aristotle. [White paper]. Stanford University Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence & University of Oxford. https://www.oxford-aiethics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2024-06/Aristotle%20and%20AI%20White%20Paper%20-%20June%202024.pdf

Pinker, S. (2021). Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. Viking: New York.

Robson, D. (2019). The Intelligence Trap: Revolutionise your thinking and make wiser decisions. Hodder & Stoughton: UK

Sandel, M. J. (2021). The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? Penguin Books: USA.

Searle, J. (1997). The Mystery Of Consciousness. The New York Review of Books: New York.

Spiegeleire, S. D., Maas, M. & Sweijs, T. (2017). Artificial Intelligence And The Future Of Defense: Strategic Implications For Small- And Medium-Sized Force Providers. Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. http://www.jstor.com/stable/resrep12564.7

Wooldridge, M. (2020). A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going. Flatiron Books: New York.

Walmsley, G. (2013). Is There a Place for Traditional Values and Virtues in Society Today? Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 8(1), 31-52.

Zheng, J. & Meister, M. (2024). The unbearable slowness of being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? Neuron, 113(2), 192-204.

Bahasa Abstract

Persoalan artificial intelligence (AI) atau kecerdasan buatan dan kemampuannya untuk menandingi kecerdasan manusia menuai pro-kontra di masyarakat dunia. Di satu sisi, terdapat kelompok yang menilai AI akan dapat menyamai atau bahkan melampaui kecerdasan manusia (strong AI), namun di sisi lain terdapat kelompok yang skeptis terhadap kecerdasan AI, meski mereka mengakui AI mungkin dapat mensimulasikan cara berpikir manusia pada tingkatan dasar (weak AI). Artikel ini mendukung posisi kedua. Dengan menggunakan kerangka teoretis realisme kritis dan etika neo-Aristotelian serta metode argumentasi abduksi, artikel ini mencoba untuk menelusuri alasan yang mendasari keyakinan pada strong AI. Artikel ini menemukan bahwa keyakinan pada strong AI disebabkan oleh penggunaan kerangka berpikir yang tidak tepat, terutama adanya kesalahan pada asumsi ontologis dan etis, dalam melihat persoalan realitas dan kondisi manusia, termasuk fenomena kesadaran dan kecerdasan manusia. Dalam perspektif yang ditawarkan penulis, kecerdasan manusia sesungguhnya tidak dapat disamai atau dilampaui oleh AI mengingat kecerdasan manusia meliputi kecerdasan logis/rasional, emosional dan moral yang tidak semuanya dapat direduksi atau dipahami sebagai suatu sistem komputasi.

Kata Kunci: Kecerdasan Manusia; Kecerdasan Buatan; Artificial Intelligence (AI); Strong AI; Weak AI; Realisme Kritis; Etika Keutamaan Neo-Aristotelian

Download

Share

COinS