The Illusion of Free Will in Modern Machine Learning

This article was made in collaboration with Sean Eugene Chua, an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto who has shared experiences across fields that include data science, programming, and machine learning. By definition, it is when a machine can imitate human behavior and emulate how they think and act. A published paper written by logician Walter Pitts and neuroscientist Warren S. McCulloch entitled "A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity" was regarded as a breakthrough in laying the first foundations of machine learning. It indicates the usage of mathematical principles to detail the science and psychology behind human decision-making. However, in 1950, Alan Turing introduced what computer scientists now know of as the "Turing Test" to determine whether a machine can be considered intelligent or unintelligent.