Artificial emotions and machine consciousness

Abstract

This chapter first focuses on artificial emotions, and then moves on to machine consciousness, reflecting the fact that emotions and consciousness have been treated independently and by different communities in artificial intelligence (AI). It reviews the philosophical perspectives of two pioneers in AI and philosophy of mind, Alan Turing and Hilary Putnam, respectively. The chapter discusses the philosophical implications of AI research on emotions and consciousness. Much research on the role of emotions in artificial agents has been motivated by an analysis of possible functional roles of emotions in natural systems. Work on emotions in AI can be roughly divided into two strands (with a small overlap): communicative aspects and architectural aspects. Emotion research has become an active interdisciplinary subfield in AI, and machine consciousness is on the verge of establishing a research community that pursues the design of conscious machines.