Janek Simon, Katarzyna Nestorowicz, and Marcin Nowicki are talking. Alek Hudzik and Arek Kowalik from Mint Magazine are asking the questions. This article is from the first print edition of Mint Magazine, published on January 15, 2025.

The starting point for this lecture is the forthcoming book Machine Decision is Not Final: China, and the History and Future of AI and the essay by Bogna Konior included in it, Dark Forest Theory of Intelligence. The researcher introduces her talk as follows:

From Turing to Searle, thought experiments have shaped the development of artificial intelligence. In my lecture, I will present a new thought experiment inspired by Liu Cixin’s Dark Forest Theory. Contrary to Western assumptions about the transparent nature of intelligence, I propose that a truly intelligent AI may choose strategic silence, deception, or disinformation, offering a radical vision of future relationships between humans and intelligent machines.

Bogna Konior is a professor of history, culture, and the philosophy of new technologies at NYU Shanghai, where she works at the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Culture and the Interactive Media Arts department. She is also a mentor at the Synthetic Minds Lab at Medialab Matadero and a researcher at the Antikythera think tank. Her current work focuses on artificial intelligence, the history and future of technology in Eastern Europe and China, and the intersections between theology and technology.