Philosophy Paper Poses Embodiment Challenge: True Cognitive AI Requires Artificial Life First
ArtificialOther · x · 2026-11-10
Giovanni Rolla's open-access paper in Philosophy & Technology (published June 30, 2026) argues that current AI systems, despite excelling at language processing and pattern recognition, fundamentally differ from human cognition: humans learn through embodied, intersubjective experiences tied to survival and adaptation, while disembodied AIs cannot undergo such structural change.
Drawing on the radically embodied framework, Rolla poses the "embodiment challenge": without biological embodiment, situatedness, and autonomy, artificial systems cannot replicate the self-sustaining, survival-driven processes essential to naturally cognizing systems. His conclusion: creating genuinely cognitive AI would first require achieving artificial life.
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