Did Google Create a Sentient AI or Just a Zombie?
“A Christian mystic priest and software engineer claims one of the world’s most powerful tech companies discriminated against his religious beliefs after he publicly proclaimed that an AI chatbot has become sentient.” - TGC
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A complication on this topic is ambiguity on what “sentient” means.
Merriam Webster…
1: responsive to or conscious of sense impressions sentient beings
2: AWARE
3: finely sensitive in perception or feeling
This def. doesn’t clear things up but expresses the ambiguity well. Do we mean “ability to think” or “ability to be conscious/aware of thought?” or something else?
In any case, Google’s “AI” chatbot isn’t any of these things. It’s an algorithm that makes words in response to other words. Input, output. I can kind of sympathize with Blake Lemoine, though, to a degree. We intuitively associate linguistic ability with intelligence, sophistication, awareness, and personhood. So when you throw a thoughtful question at an AI and get a linguistically sophisticated response, it feels like a personal interaction.
But what really makes a person a person? It’s not really linguistic ability. Increasingly, we can see that soulless machines can do that trick. Maybe the debate will lead many to rethink what makes people people. Christians know. Maybe all humans know, deep down. But the linguistic finesse of our AI’s is exposing a weakness in our intuitive knowledge on that.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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