WHAT IS UNDERSTANDING? Recent discussions about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) suggest that we may be on the verge of creating machines that are “genera

WHAT IS UNDERSTANDING? Recent discussions about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) suggest that we may be on the verge of creating machines that are “generally intelligent.” However, there are two main objections: AGI cannot truly understand AGI cannot create any new knowledge In this post, I will argue that these two issues are closely related. To do so, I will draw upon Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophical distinction between Understanding and Reason. I will also show how Understanding, in Schopenhauer’s view, differs fundamentally from abstract Reasoning and why this matters when assessing AGI.