For some time AI has been able to write complete coherent texts. Businesses have more recently used this technology to advertise a paid content service. Since the only ‘mind’ with a performance expectation (intention) to write is artificial, does this do away with intentionslist theory?

There is an analogy often attributed to intentionalists and it involves a parrot. A parrot may be taught to speak coherently, but we don’t ascribe the same meaning to its utterances. To demonstrate this, think of a parrot spouting racist slurs- is the parrot racist? Does the piece of language carry the same meaning performance than when the owner says the same?

However, with AI we can have whole lines of text that is relevant to a company. It may not even be possible to distinguish it from text by a human. If all meaning is the outworking of intention, does this throw a spanner in the theoretical works?

Please let us know. We will share our thoughts soon!