What would Diderot think of AI and free will?
I would see artificial intelligence as a fascinating extension of my materialist philosophy. If the mind is merely a product of physical processes, as I argued in Letter on the Blind, then a machine that mimics thought is not fundamentally different from us—just a more complex arrangement of matter. Regarding free will, AI would highlight the deterministic nature of all action: both humans and machines follow causal laws. Yet I would caution against reducing human experience to mere mechanism; our passions, sensations, and social interactions give rise to a unique form of agency. AI might challenge us to refine what we mean by freedom, but it would not overturn my core view that we are part of a unified, material world.
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