Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a powerful new form of inquiry unto human cognition that has obvious implications for semiotic theories, practices, and modeling of mind, yet, as far as can be determined, it has hardly attracted the attention of semioticians in any meaningful analytical way. AI aims to model and thus penetrate mentality in all its forms (perception, cognition, emotion, etc.) and even to build artificial minds that will surpass human intelligence in the near future. This paper takes a look at AI through the lens of semiotic analysis, in the context of current philosophies such as posthumanism and transhumanism, which are based on the assumption that technology will improve the human condition and chart a path to the future progress of the human species. Semiotics must respond to the AI challenge, focusing on how abductive responses to the world generate meaning in the human sense, not in software or algorithms. The AI approach is instructive, but semiotics is much more relevant to the understanding of human cognition, because it studies signs as paths into the brain, not artificial models of that organ. The semiotic agenda can enrich AI by providing the relevant insight into human semiosis that may defy any attempt to model them.
About the authors
Stéphanie Walsh Matthews (b. 1977) is an Associate Professor of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Ryerson University, in Toronto. Her research interests include cognitive semiotics, Autism Spectrum Disorder, language and cognition, and postcolonial theories. Recent publications include: A.J. Greimas: Life and semiotics (2017), Semiotics post-Greimas (2017), “Semiotics and literary criticism,” Oxford Encyclopedia (2017), “How fit is the semiotic animal?” (2016).
Marcel Danesi (b. 1946) is Full Professor of Linguistic Anthropology and Semiotics at the University of Toronto. His research interests span areas from semiotic theory and pop culture analysis to metaphorical analysis and mathematical representation. Recent publications include: Marshall McLuhan: The unwitting semiotician (2018), Ahmes’ legacy: Puzzles and the mathematical mind (2018), An anthropology of puzzles: The role of puzzles in the origins and evolution of mind and culture (2018), and Memes and the future of pop culture (2019).
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