Speech Acts in Artificial Intelligence
One goal of strong artificial intelligence (AI) is to programme a computer that is indistinguishable (according to Alan Turing) from a human in its dialogue behaviour. It is in linguistic interaction that we decide whether we regard a device as intelligent. However, there is a deficit in research and society: rarely is a conception of speech acts seen as a decisive factor for “intelligence”. The research project wants to find out (i) which types of speech acts as well as (ii) which rules associated with them can serve as a basis for an intelligent dialogue system. The focus is on cognition-oriented speech acts: In order to gain and use cognition, we make assumptions, attract what is already known to be true; we assert, deny, doubt, define, abstain from judgement, infer, question, state, postulate and assume. Some of these speech acts are already well-regulated in formal logical frameworks. But how do we add to them and combine them in a coherent way? And what kind of intelligence then results?
Research Results
The project strove to find out to what extent speech acts can be performed by a program. Can an algorithm follow rules of how to assume something, how to infer something, how to ask a question. ChatGPT was released in the second month of the fellowship so that part of the attention shifted to this application and especially to the kinds of speech acts such applications perform (e.g., ChatGPT, unlike any human, rarely ever asks questions). However, the main intention of the project was to design a system of rules that is implementable into a program and that allows it to perform some kinds of epistemically oriented speech acts. The project yielded an analysis of rules of asking and answering. Upon implementation an AI engine will be able to ask and answer in various language “games” such as defending a proposition against challenging questions or reducing a complex proposition by posing analytical questions.
- Cordes, M. (forthcoming in 2024). Denkwerkzeuge – Eine logische Propädeutik der Philosophie. Springer. (Chapters 7, 8 written and finalized during the fellowship.)
- Cordes, M. (2023, March 26). Conversing with AI: Conference Report and Mental Property Ascription. RAILS Blog. https://blog.ai-laws.org/conversing-with-ai-conference-report-and-mental-property-ascription/
- Successful application as a consultant at Meryts GmbH, with a focus on Artificial Intelligence in insurance.
Main areas of research
- Speech act theory
- Artificial Intelligence
- Conceptualisation
- Natural reasoning
- Question Logic
Curriculum Vitae
- 2003-2008: Studies of Philosophy, Mathematics and Pre- and Early History in Greifswald and Munich (LMU).
- 2009: Doctoral preparatory stay at Stanford University.
- 2015: Doctoral thesis on the concept of illusory problems (Greifswald).
- 2017-2020: PostDoc research project on question logic.
- 2008-2022: Research and teaching at the Universities of Greifswald (2008-2020) and Regensburg (2021-2022).
Publications and lectures
(selection)
M. Cordes, “Pseudosentences, Auto-Misunderstanding, and Formalization”, in: A. Mauz; C. Tietz (eds.), Akten zur 4. Jahrestagung NHI: Missverstehen – zu einer Urszene der Hermeneutik (forthcoming).
M. Cordes (ed.), Asking and Answering: Rivalling Approaches to Interrogative Methods. Narr/Francke/Attempto: Tübingen, 2022. Available online.
M. Cordes, “Calculizing Classical Inferential Erotetic Logic”, Review of Symbolic Logic, 14.4 (2021): 1066-1087. Available online.
M. Cordes & G. Siegwart, “Explication”, in J. Fieser; B. Dowden (eds.), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2018). Available online.
F. Reinmuth & M. Cordes, “Commentary and Illocutionary Expressions in Linear Calculi of Natural Deduction”, Logic and Logical Philosophy, 26 (2017): 163-196. available online.
M. Cordes, Illusory problems – An explicative attempt. Dissertation Thesis. University of Greifswald, 2016. Available online.
M. Cordes, “Freges Urteilslehre: Ein in der Logik vergessenes Lehrstück der Analytischen Philosophie”, paper presented at the Logik section of the XXIII German Congress of Philosophy, Münster. (2014) Available online.
F. Reinmuth & M. Cordes, A calculus of speech. A pragmatized calculus of natural reasoning along with metatheory. (2010; Version 2.0: 2011) Available online.
