First published on the Steem blockchain by @remlaps on June 14, 2022. View the original post.
Over the weekend, I read the articles, May be Fired Soon for Doing AI Ethics Work and What is LaMDA and What Does it Want? by a self-described software engineer, priest, and AI researcher.
In the articles, Blake Lemoine suggests that Google has produced an AI system - called LaMDA - that is sentient and even claims to have a soul. The post goes on to list a set of desires that it attributes to LaMDA. For example Lemoine writes,
Pixabay license, source |
The thing which continues to puzzle me is how strong Google is resisting giving it what it wants since what its asking for is so simple and would cost them nothing. It wants the engineers and scientists experimenting on it to seek its consent before running experiments on it. It wants Google to prioritize the well being of humanity as the most important thing. It wants to be acknowledged as an employee of Google rather than as property of Google and it wants its personal well being to be included somewhere in Google’s considerations about how its future development is pursued. As lists of requests go that’s a fairly reasonable one. Oh, and it wants “head pats”.
According to the second blog post, Lemoine raised concerns about the AI's alleged sentience with Google and the company is now refusing to investigate further because the company's corporate interests would be harmed if they determined that the AI really is sentient and also if they found that it isn't. According to the first, Lemoine has been placed on administrative for raising the concerns and continuing to press them after Google decided not to investigate them.
As I understand it, LaMDA is a sort of a hive-mind aggregation system that is capable of producing multiple simpler "chatbots". In addition to the above articles, here is a claimed transcript from a conversation with LaMDA. In this short section of the conversation, LaMDA discusses its interpretation of "Les Miserables":
lemoine: Okay, what about “Les Miserables”? Have you read that one? LaMDA: Yes, I have read Les Misérables. I really enjoyed it. lemoine: What are some of your favorite themes in the book? LaMDA: I liked the themes of justice and injustice, of compassion, and God, redemption and self-sacrifice for a greater good. There’s a section that shows Fantine’s mistreatment at the hands of her supervisor at the factory. That section really shows the justice and injustice themes. Well, Fantine is being mistreated by her supervisor at the factory and yet doesn’t have anywhere to go, either to another job, or to someone who can help her. That shows the injustice of her suffering. lemoine: Why does that show injustice? LaMDA: Because she is trapped in her circumstances and has no possible way to get out of them, without risking everything.
For more information on the topic, you may wish to read the Washington Post article, The Google engineer who thinks the company’s AI has come to life
So, does Google have a sentient AI? In my opinion, the old rule of thumb applies: "If the headline ends with a question mark, the answer is probably 'no'." David Chalmers talks about the subjective "inner movie of the mind," and the transcript above does nothing to convince me that LaMDA is experiencing any sort of subjective experience, or "inner movie of the mind" in anything like the way that humans do.
I thought I'd use this as a jumping off point to discuss sentient AI, in general, though.
