Artificial Intelligence: A Concept Under-Construction, A Reality Under-Development

Abstract

At a time, the term [Artificial Intelligence] increasingly populates public speech blurring the boundaries of its initial scope of reference and running the risk of becoming a general category—an “umbrella term”—both for sociotechnical systems as well as for computational techniques, the present paper aims to grasp its core semantic identity by mapping the concept of [Artificial Intelligence] onto that of its logic correlate [Natural Intelligence]. But the mere definition of [intelligence] is complex as it involves much more than just a “semantic exercise” of deconstruction attempting lexicographic clarification. It demands the definition of an epistemological framework capable of originating and justifying the ontological presence of the term. The present chapter assumes cognition as an embodied, embedded, and always situated process whose dynamo is semiosis, i.e., the essential “interpretative” process that takes place within the dialectic relationship binding an organism to its environment. In this epistemological framework, intelligence is viewed not as a human-specific endowment but as an existential attribute inherent of all life forms. An attribute that is responsible for their adequate response to environmental prompts, for their capacity to adapt, their capacity to strive, persist, live and replicate. This framework, that is fundamental to analyse and understand the universal phenomenon of natural cognition and the essence of organic intelligence in its multiple diversity, also provides the necessary grounding to clarify what is at stage when we refer to artificial intelligence, simultaneously allowing to identify the fundamental changes that are being introduced in the typical forms of cognition by the on-going massive incorporation of artificial intelligent systems (AIS) and the digitization of daily reality. We believe this theoretical grounding will contribute (i) to clarify the semantic substance associated to the concept of [Artificial Intelligence] as well as its scope of reference (ii) to identify the new forms of Agent/Environment relationship brought about by the incorporation of sociotechnical systems in different domains of life (iii) to develop (AIS) that are context sensitive, i.e., that are capable of identifying and respecting the values substantiated in the social/cultural matrix present in the context they are embedded in, while achieving their expected goals efficiently.