arXiv:2506.10130cs.AI2025-06被引 10

AI的确定性与泛化能力不可兼得,越严谨越受限,越灵活越易错。

A Conjecture on a Fundamental Trade-Off between Certainty and Scope in Symbolic and Generative AI

  • 用信息论形式提出确定性与数据处理范围的权衡关系
  • 指出符号系统需狭窄结构才能保证无错,生成模型必有不可消除错误风险
  • 适用于关注可信AI、系统设计与治理的研究者

本文提出一个猜想,形式化人工智能系统中可证明正确性与广泛数据映射能力之间的根本性权衡。若一个AI系统追求演绎上严密的保证(即输出绝对无误),其运行领域必须严格限定且预先结构化,如经典符号式AI;反之,能够处理高维数据并生成丰富输出的现代生成模型,必然无法避免错误或误分类,存在不可消除的风险。通过将这一长期隐含的矛盾显性化并开放给严格验证,该猜想深刻重塑了人工智能的技术目标与哲学期待。文章回顾了历史动因,以信息论形式陈述猜想,并置于认识论、形式验证与技术哲学的更广泛讨论中。分析进一步探讨其对不确定性、审慎认知风险与道德责任的影响,阐明其若成立将如何改变评估标准、治理框架与混合系统设计。最后强调,最终证明或证伪该不等式对可信AI的未来发展至关重要。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

This article introduces a conjecture that formalises a fundamental trade-off between provable correctness and broad data-mapping capacity in Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. When an AI system is engineered for deductively watertight guarantees (demonstrable certainty about the error-free nature of its outputs) -- as in classical symbolic AI -- its operational domain must be narrowly circumscribed and pre-structured. Conversely, a system that can input high-dimensional data to produce rich information outputs -- as in contemporary generative models -- necessarily relinquishes the possibility of zero-error performance, incurring an irreducible risk of errors or misclassification. By making this previously implicit trade-off explicit and open to rigorous verification, the conjecture significantly reframes both engineering ambitions and philosophical expectations for AI. After reviewing the historical motivations for this tension, the article states the conjecture in information-theoretic form and contextualises it within broader debates in epistemology, formal verification, and the philosophy of technology. It then offers an analysis of its implications and consequences, drawing on notions of underdetermination, prudent epistemic risk, and moral responsibility. The discussion clarifies how, if correct, the conjecture would help reshape evaluation standards, governance frameworks, and hybrid system design. The conclusion underscores the importance of eventually proving or refuting the inequality for the future of trustworthy AI.

AI基础符号系统生成模型可信AI

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