The Lowdown on Agency in ALife and AI
Previously, we discussed synthetic intelligence as a serious field of inquiry. Separately, we’ve differentiated between synthetic intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI). Now, let’s get the lowdown on agency in both artificial life (ALife) and AI. I want to discuss the concept of agency as well as provide some Python code examples.
Intelligence alone, synthetic or otherwise, does not provide the means to act. In part, such a claim summarizes a core issue with artificial intelligence. That is, the expression of intelligence is imitated without a sense of how the intelligence is perceiving itself. Indeed, without agency, I would suggest that intelligence lacks the facilities alone to interact with reality. In some ways, that tells us what agency is- an intent to interact with the world as an expression of intelligence. Agency, however, exists in an odd, paradoxical space defined almost exclusively by assumptions.
Perceiving agency is not without issue. That is, we act as if our actions are the result of intentions. As well, we intimate to ourselves (and others!) that such intentions originate internal to our intelligence and freely so without predetermination. Likewise, we are aware of the intention to act although we may not be fully aware of when such intention emerges within our consciousness. Let’s assume this to be universally true…
