10/05/17: Does Artificial Intelligence Need More Innate Machinery? – NYU Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness

A “nature-nurture” debate is now taking place in the foundations of artificial intelligence. Advocates of deep learning, including Yann LeCun, hold that to create advanced artificial intelligence systems, general mechanisms for learning from the environment will play the most important role. Critics of deep learning, including Gary Marcus, hold that these systems will be limited unless they incorporate much more innate domain-specific machinery. This debate parallels a long-standing debate in the cognitive sciences between nativists, who hold that the brain relies on a great deal of innate domain-specific machinery, and empiricists, who hold that it relies mainly on general mechanisms for learning.