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I am a Computer Scientist interested in philosopy of Artificial Intelligence. Is there a good book that covers AI main philosphical questions?

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    A recently published book which may be of interest is Ray Kurzweil's How To Create A Mind. The first few chapters drag a bit but it generally a very good read. The many philosophical issues raised are addressed in the later chapters.
    – nwr
    Jun 27, 2015 at 4:15

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I haven't read it myself, but this book was mentioned in an introductory course on robotics on the Radboud University in the Netherlands (I am a student computing science, so this may be just relevant for you as well):

Superintelligence, by Nick Bostrom

Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life.

Nick Bostrom is director of the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute, which is an interesting position in itself already.

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Thank you for all the answers.

I have found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_artificial_intelligence

At first I wasn't too confident about Wikipedia, but it is the best article I have read in Wikipedia in my whole life. There are plenty of books and scientific articles in the References part, just check it out!

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I have read this book. Although dedicated to more than just the philosophy AI (it covers other topics in CS besides AI), the chapter on AI was very readable. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0631229191.html

Given your background, you probably would like the whole book anyway. On the other hand in does get technical in places. It doesn't necessarily require any training, but it is not for the casual reader.

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Godel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter is a good book on the nature of self & intelligence. Perhaps not exactly related, but has a lot of really interesting stuff on the nature of "intelligence" and how we can create isomorphisms between brains and machines and simulate human "intelligence". He also approaches it in a very interesting manner, tying in all sorts of examples from music, mathematics, art, and science.

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How about Turing's 1950 paper (not a book, I know), which arguably started it all? http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~dprecup/courses/AI/Materials/turing1950.pdf

A note to other posters: how about books by people who argue against mind uploading, strong AI apocalypse, yada, yada...

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There is a lot of current writing on this.

Here is a recent article covering some of the issues:

Artificial intelligence: where’s the philosophical scrutiny?

And here is a recent book:

Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind

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