ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND KNOWLEDGE: IMPLICATIONS FOR KNOWLEDGE CONDITIONS AND PROCESS FROM AQUINAS’S EPISTEMOLOGY

By

 Aloysius Uchechukwu Onah

Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Major Seminary

Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI), furnishes knowledge information about what is imputed into the machine so that it becomes a case of garbage in, garbage out. AI is the fruit of the progress of the human tenacious mind that raises epistemological questions about whether the products of AI meet the requirements necessary to equate their function to any theory of knowledge. While the precision of information supplied by AI remains commendable. The principal problem that this paper seeks to address is: What constitutes knowledge from a Thomistic point of view and how can that explain the knowledge-based process of AI?  Employing the method of critical analysis, this study examines Aquina’s theory of knowledge from its experiential origin, abstract concepts from experience and the use of the intellect to understand and reason about these concepts. This is in direct response to what constitutes knowledge of AI and whether it meets the conditions of knowledge found in sentient beings as espoused by Aquinas in his epistemology.