Arguments for Good Artificial Intelligence

How can we realize the grand dreams of Artificial Intelligence, without making our worst fears come true? Bart Verheij argues that we need to build machines that can participate in a constructive critical discussion, that tried-and-tested tool for good science, good politics and good family life. By developing such argumentation machines we can arrive at an artificial intelligence that provides good answers to our questions, has good reasons for its actions and makes good choices. In this text (presented in the original Dutch and in English translation), Bart Verheij leads us along the right mathematical foundations, Hitchcock's film `To Catch A Thief' and different traditions of legal reasoning. Bart Verheij predicts that by 2025 argumentation systems will have finally closed the long-standing gap between knowledge-based and data-driven artificial intelligence.

The text is the transcription of Bart Verheij's inaugural lecture, read upon accepting the chair of Artificial Intelligence and Argumentation at the University of Groningen. He currently is head of the department of Artificial Intelligence in the Bernoulli Institute of Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and serves as the president of the International Assocation of Artificial Intelligence and Law.

The lecture was delivered on September 12, 2017, in the Aula of the Academiegebouw of the University of Groningen (Broerstraat 5, Groningen).