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System Intentionality and the Artificial Intelligence Hermeneutic Network

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System Intentionality and the Artificial Intelligence Hermeneutic Network System Intentionality and the Artificial Intelligence Hermeneutic Network: the Role of Intentional Vocabulary ∗ Jichen Zhu D. Fox Harrell Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Institute of Technology 686 Cherry Street, suite 336 686 Cherry Street, suite 336 Atlanta, GA, USA Atlanta, GA, USA [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT Lewis's interactive music system Voyager, Gil Weinberg & Computer systems that are designed explicitly to exhibit Scott Driscoll's robotic drummer Haile), visual arts (e.g., intentionality embody a phenomenon of increasing cultural Harold Cohen's painting program AARON ), and storytelling importance. In typical discourse about artificial intelligence (e.g., Michael Mateas's drama manager in Fa¸cade). The rel- (AI) systems, system intentionality is often seen as a tech- atively unexplored phenomenon of system intentionality also nical and ontological property of a program, resulting from provides artists and theorists with novel expressive possibil- its underlying algorithms and knowledge engineering. Influ- ities [26]. enced by hermeneutic approaches to text analysis and draw- ing from the areas of actor-network theory and philosophy To fully explore the design space of intentional systems, of mind, this paper proposes a humanistic framework for whether in the forms of art installations, consumer prod- analysis of AI systems stating that system intentionality is ucts, or otherwise, requires a thorough understanding of how narrated and interpreted by its human creators and users. system intentionality is formed. Many technologists regard We pay special attention to the discursive strategies em- the phenomenon of system intentionality as a technical prop- bedded in source code and technical literature of software erty of a system, directly proportionally to the complexity of systems that include such narration and interpretation. Fi- the algorithm and knowledge engineering process, whereas nally, we demonstrate the utility of our theory with a close humanists will be quick to point out its contingencies on reading of an AI system, Hofstadter and Mitchell's Copycat. cultural and social settings. Keywords The discussion of intentionality in the context of computing can be traced back to the series of debates concerning AI Software studies, Artificial intelligence, Hermeneutics, Crit- among scholars from different fields during the 1980s and the ical Code Studies, System intentionality early 1990s. Among the various approaches towards system intentionality, Daniel Dennett [6, 7] proposed the core ideas 1. INTRODUCTION of intentional systems theory. According to Dennett, one of Human interaction with technical artifacts is often mediated the most important strategies that people use to predict the by treating them as if they were alive. We exclaim \my car behaviors of humans, animals, artifacts, and even themselves doesn't want to start," or\my computer loves to crash." Yet, is the intentional stance. It requires treating those entities as of increasing cultural importance are computer systems de- rational agents with beliefs and desires in order to predict signed explicitly to appear intentional. Compared with more their potential behaviors [5]. He subsequently defined the instrumental programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, these in- systems to which we apply intentional stance as intentional tentional systems seem to produce output about and directed systems [6]. For instance, we may not know exactly how at certain things in the world rather than the mere execution a Roomba autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner is designed of algorithmic rules. These systems, often produced in ar- or constructed to traverse a room, but we can nevertheless tificial intelligence (AI) practices and increasingly in digital make sense of and predict its behaviors to a certain degree by media and electronic literature, exhibit complex behaviors formulating our interpretations of its beliefs and desires. In usually seen as the territory of intentional human phenom- other words, the apparent system intentionality is attributed ena, such as planning, learning, creating and carrying on by the users of these systems. conversations. More importantly, they seem to display be- liefs, desires and other mental states of their own. However, at least one issue remains. In his dissertation, Seel [23] has shown that we can apply the intentional stance to Intentional systems are of particular relevance to various almost all artifacts that we interact with. This observation areas in digital arts and culture not simply because the lat- raises the question about the boundary of Dennett's defini- ter provides a vibrant environment for experimentation with tion of intentional systems. To the majority of us, certain meaning, interaction, and context. Indeed, many salient ex- digital artifacts afford intentional readings more easily than amples of intentional systems are from music (e.g., George others. A robotic drummer, for instance, supports inten- ∗ tional readings more readily than a \hello world" program. Current address: Department of Digital Media, University This paper aligns with the core of Denett's theory | the of Central Florida, 12461 Research Parkway, Orlando, FL, USA intentionality of the digital systems under study is not their intrinsic technical property, as many computer scientists and difference between the intentionality of a computer system theorists may believe. Meanwhile, it is also important to and that of a human being, for both are derived by those further develop Dennett's theory so that we also take into who interact with them. account the active role of system authors in the formation of system intentionality. This phenomenon is not only a result Dennett's theory legitimizes system intentionality and helps of human users' evolutionary skills, but also as a product of to explain why many digital artifacts appear to be inten- system authors' technical and discursive practices. tional to us. However, its limitation is that it does not com- pletely explain why and how certain artifacts seem more In this paper, we propose the AI hermeneutic network, a intentional than others. As a further step toward looking at new framework to highlight authors' narration of system in- the analysis of code in socio-cultural context, in this paper tentionality as well as users' interpretation [25]. More specif- we turn our attention to system authors' role in narrating ically, we call critical attention to the use of intentional system intentionality, particularly to the use of intentional vocabulary as a key component of the author's discursive vocabulary. Two pieces of existing work are of particular strategies in their narrations. Section 2 first draws the pa- relevance here. Hayles [10] has noticed the significance of per's theoretical framework from relevant theories from both such narration in Alife, a domain that is very similar to the humanities and the AI community, including Hayles's intentional systems; Agre and McDermott have separately work on A-life researchers' discursive strategies and McDer- commented the role of intentional vocabulary in the prac- mott's and Agre's observations of intentional vocabulary in tice of AI. After a brief account of related existing work, this the AI practice. Next, Section 3 introduces our new con- section discusses how our approach extends them. struct of the AI hermeneutic network, which argues that system intentionality arises from a complex meaning-making 2.1 Lessons from Alife network that incorporates software authors' discursive nar- Artificial Life (Alife), sometimes also referred to as \AL- ration and users' hermeneutic interpretation of system inten- ife,"\alife," or \AL," bears many resemblances to AI. Above tionality in a board social context. Finally, Section 4 demon- all, the goal for researchers from both areas is to instruct strates the effect of our AI hermeneutic network through a computer programs to display phenomena that are not com- close reading of a real AI system, Copycat. In our analy- monly associated with machines | whether aliveness or in- sis, close attention is paid to the authors' use of intentional telligence. Hayles's existing work on Alife therefore is of vocabulary in their narration of system intentionality. In particular use for us to unpack system intentionality. addition to the source code of Copycat, we look closely into a substantial corpus of the technical literature produced by In order to understand \[h]ow is it possible in the late twen- the system authors, which is a rich and yet relatively un- tieth century to believe, or at least claim to believe, that explored areas in software studies and critical code studies computer codes are alive | and not only alive, but nat- [18]. ural," Hayles approaches her research question \by looking not only at the scientific content of the programs but also 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK at the stories told about and through them" [10, pp.224]. The topic of intentionality is of longstanding concern in phi- Subsequently, Hayles examines these \narratives" at three losophy. In the context of AI, it is commonly understood as levels. The first level includes \representations, authorial in- \aboutness" [1, 8, 24] or defined as \that property of many tention, anthropomorphic interpretation" of Alife computer mental states and events by which they are directed at or programs. By observing how Alife researchers construct the about or of objects and states of affairs in the world" [22]. narratives so that they are tightly interwoven
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