Making artificial minds is not an easy enterprise. It may even be so difficult that we will not be able to write the programs ourselves. We may have to be assisted by the computer. Russell on Science Professor Putnam's disparaging remarks about AI curiously, and perhaps inappropriately, remind me of some remarks which Russell made about Ryle's Concept of Mind . He no doubt knows that scientists say things which they believe to be relevant to the problems he is discussing, but he is quite persuaded that the philosopher need pay no attention to science.
Philosophers ignore it at their peril.
Fortunately enough, as even a cursory look at the Philosophers' Index reveals, many contemporary philosophers of mind live up to Russell's precept and do not discuss the philosophy of mind with their eyes turned away from sciences such as AI and neurophysiology. All this being said, however, I do share Putnam's feeling that the hard philosophical problems are here to stay. He specifically mentions the problem of intentionality. Like him, I have never seen this issue addressed head-on in artificial intelligence. However, I have the feeling that philosophers may still be wrestling with it if the goal of artificial intelligence has been reached and intelligent robots la Asimov are strolling all about us.