Mind, Language and Machine: A Dialogue Between Wittgenstein and Artificial Intelligence

This paper critically reviews a comprehensive and detailed philosophical account of the plausibility and practicability of artificial intelligence (AI), an emerging field of study which has brought forth a host of technical, methodological, epistemological and ethical issues across various disciplines. Contrary to the prevailing belief, Wittgenstein's legacies are found to have contributed considerably to the philosophical underpinnings for modern AI theory and research. In a thorough scrutiny of the issue, the author extensively examines major philosophical insights engendered by the nexus of interests in the burgeoning AI enterprise, and makes predictions on how close we could ever get to creating human intelligence and its profound practical implications for human existence. Future dimensions of AI research in relation to philosophy and language are further explored with special reference to their potential relevance to natural language processing in Chinese.