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Discussions of machine versus living intelligence need more clarity

Nature Machine Intelligence volume 6, pages 1424–1426 (2024)Cite this article

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Sharp distinctions often drawn between machine and biological intelligences have not tracked advances in the fields of developmental biology and hybrid robotics. We call for conceptual clarity driven by the science of diverse intelligences in unconventional spaces and at unfamiliar scales and embodiments that blur conventional categories.

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Fig. 1: A flowchart of questions designed to clarify positions on machine intelligence.

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Acknowledgements

N.R. acknowledges support from the National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC: RGPIN-2022-04162) and the New Frontiers in Research Fund Exploration Grant (NFRF-EG: NFRFE-2023-00568). M.L. acknowledges support of the John Templeton Foundation (grant #62212) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, under award number FA9550-22-1-0465, Cognitive & Computational Neuroscience program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Sciences, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Nicolas Rouleau

  2. Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    Nicolas Rouleau & Michael Levin

  3. Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Michael Levin

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  1. Nicolas Rouleau
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  2. Michael Levin
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Correspondence to Michael Levin.

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Nature Machine Intelligence thanks Henry Shevlin, and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Rouleau, N., Levin, M. Discussions of machine versus living intelligence need more clarity. Nat Mach Intell 6, 1424–1426 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-024-00955-y

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