[ExI] People often think their chatbot is alive

[Giovanni Santostasi]

*The title of this thread is not dismissing the serious discussion of AI.*

I understand. At the same time I saw this type of argument raised several
times to dismiss both Blake's claims and the topic in general.
The linked article is much more dismissing mentioning people believe in
ghosts for example as relevant.
There are parallel discussions on how people relate to technology, how we
attribute agency to things, people's relationship with the unknown, all
interesting and fascinating topics that are more less relevant.
Blake Lemoine is not some average person using Replica. It is important to
engage the public but also experts in AI need to be involved in the
dialogue. We need both groups. It is too important an issue to be left to
only social movement trends or some small and close minded, company
controlled research group.
I would be the last one wanting people suppressing a research field because
they think AI is aware and we will have "Terminator" scenarios very soon
(that is a common trope when people discuss AI).
I still believe serious AI research that has the chance to create self
aware entities should be disclosed publicly, it should have IRB board
monitoring what is going on and in fact also external review boards. I
don't trust Google's internal panel of ethicists. I think they mishandled
this situation and they seemed too controlled by management and Google
policies.
Giovanni





On Thu, Jul 7, 2022 at 2:59 PM BillK via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Thu, 7 Jul 2022 at 22:40, Giovanni Santostasi via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> >
> > Sorry to elaborate, for example, read Blake Lemoine's (the engineer that
> claimed LaMDA is conscious) latest Medium article
> >
> >
> https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/who-should-make-decisions-about-ai-33f19e9fe5cc
> >
> > Independently from his conclusion about LaMDA awareness, the arguments
> raised in the article are very serious and profound. Of course, the issue
> of how to decide if AI is aware is not new (famously Turing among others
> came up with possible tests and so on) but I don't remember seeing anywhere
> a serious discussion, in particular, one that caught the public attention
> and imagination, of who exactly would make that decision and what it should
> be done if the decision is that indeed we are dealing with a conscious
> entity.
> > Also, the topic of AI rights is not new and Kurzweil even had a
> fictionalized video on this topic. But it was all hypothetical and sci-fi
> like so it didn't really create serious discussions and debates.
> > The fact somebody, right or wrong, came out, with some personal
> consequences in their own lives, claiming that in fact, we have created the
> first conscious AI changed all this and made it real.
> > So I think people like us that have been interested for years on these
> ideas, and in fact, these topics and issues are part of our identity in a
> way, should be the last ones dismissing this discussion (for example with
> sentences like "people often think their chatbot is alive" that is the
> title of this thread) as something ridiculous and based on some delusion.
> > Giovanni
> >
> > _______________________________________________
>
>
> The title of this thread is not dismissing the serious discussion of AI.
> It is simply stating a fact that nowadays the chatbots are so cleverly
> designed that when the general public comes into contact with them,
> they think they have many of the attributes of a real person.
> e.g. robot companions for the aged or disabled.
>
>
> BillK
>
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> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
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>
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