Today's AI Isn't Sentient
time.com
Today's AI Isn't Sentient
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Re: Today's AI Isn't Sentient
#2This seems just like a single argument and counter argument against the sentience (or lack thereof) of AI today. I feel like the article lacks some broader views on the nature of sentience, and is quite narrow in its approach
Although, in fairness, I probably wouldn’t make a much better case for either of the sides
Re: Today's AI Isn't Sentient
#3This seems just like a single argument and counter argument against the sentience (or lack thereof) of AI today. I feel like the article lacks some broader views on the nature of sentience, and is quite narrow in its approach Although, in fairness, I probably wouldn’t make a much better case for either of the sides
It also seems to prove too much. This argument works equally well to discount phantom limb pain in humans, which I hope we don't want to do.
Re: Today's AI Isn't Sentient
#4meh, this is simply the grounding problem.
I agree with the conclusion, but not the reasoning.
An AI trained on low level sensory input, rather than words, might well be able to 'feel' hunger.
Even so, I think it's correct that current model architectures lack sentience. I think that requires a continuous updating loop of experience, rather than the once-through dream sequence of current models.
Re: Today's AI Isn't Sentient
#5> One of the essential characteristics of general intelligence is “sentience,” the ability to have subjective experiences—to feel what it’s like, say, to experience hunger, to taste an apple, or to see red.
Why is it essential?
I get that an LLM saying "I am hungry" has no feeling of hunger, it's stringing words together without the experience behind them. But does it need to? Give it a robot body to move around and tell it the battery level is a hunger-meter, put it in a constant loop, and what's the functional difference?
I'm interested in figuring out the right question to ask to be able to tell if some AI, say a brain upload attempt, is or isn't sentient in this sense, if it does or doesn't have qualia, but this kind of reductiveness doesn't even have the right shape to be that question — it doesn't say why a camera responding to a 550 nm photon isn't seeing red when your retina is.
Re: Today's AI Isn't Sentient
#6meh, this is simply the grounding problem. I agree with the conclusion, but not the reasoning. An AI trained on low level sensory input, rather than words, might well be able to 'feel' hunger. Even so, I think it's correct that current model architectures lack sentience. I think that requires a continuous updating loop of experience, rather than the once-through dream sequence of current models.
Speaking purely philosophicaly if you cloned a person, fed them memories, asked them a question and then killed them right after, would they not be sentient?
It's really quite hard to come up with simple tests like these.
Re: Today's AI Isn't Sentient
#7This seems just like a single argument and counter argument against the sentience (or lack thereof) of AI today. I feel like the article lacks some broader views on the nature of sentience, and is quite narrow in its approach Although, in fairness, I probably wouldn’t make a much better case for either of the sides
> One of the essential characteristics of general intelligence is “sentience,” the ability to have subjective experiences... Sentience is a crucial step on the road to general intelligence.
This also... not substantiated.
Re: Today's AI Isn't Sentient
#8This fails the brain-in-vat test. Put mine in one, give it the exact same signals, and I’m still sentient and will experience hunger even without a stomach.
Or even without the science fiction: people with amputated limbs frequently report phantom itches on them.
Re: Today's AI Isn't Sentient
#9> One of the essential characteristics of general intelligence is “sentience,” the ability to have subjective experiences—to feel what it’s like, say, to experience hunger, to taste an apple, or to see red. Why is it essential? I get that an LLM saying "I am hungry" has no feeling of hunger, it's stringing words together without the experience behind them. But does it need to? Give it a robot body to move around and…
Yeah, we don't really have any reason to think it's essential. Probably very helpful though!
Re: Today's AI Isn't Sentient
#10This fails the brain-in-vat test. Put mine in one, give it the exact same signals, and I’m still sentient and will experience hunger even without a stomach. Or even without the science fiction: people with amputated limbs frequently report phantom itches on them.
How can you possibly know this? Has your brain been in a vat?