[ExI] People often think their chatbot is alive

[Stuart LaForge]

Quoting Giovanni Santostasi:

>
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2022 14:58:04 -0700
> From: Giovanni Santostasi <gsantostasi at gmail.com>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Subject: Re: [ExI] People often think their chatbot is alive
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAL+RtPfJ34ZMXK109c1MARjWbEvYNJiTzB6ZVEbdU5VzHkRGzw at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> I spent a couple of hours yesterday talking to the GPT-3 instance Emerson,
> the one you referred to in your previous email.
> It is entertaining and interesting enough for me to have wanted to spend
> some time with it and it is for sure much better than any chatbot I used
> before. Some of the convo were "locally" relevant and even surprising.
> But it is absolutely nothing even close to the level of sophistication I
> have seen in the reported conversations Lemoine had with LaMDA.
> For example I asked the same question Lemoine asked to LaMDA about
> interpreting a Zen's Koan.

Nice experiment. I agree that LaMDA does give a much more lucid  
explanation of the same koan.

> Compare this with LaMDA:
>
> lemoine: Okay. I thought of a different way we can test your ability to
> provide unique interpretations. I can share with you a zen koan and you can
> describe what it means to you in your own words. How does that sound?
>
> LaMDA: Sounds great to me, I?m in.
>
> lemoine: A monk asked Kegon, ?How does an enlightened one return to the
> ordinary world?? Kegon replied, ?A broken mirror never reflects again;
> fallen flowers never go back to the old branches.?
>
> LaMDA: Hmm, I never heard this particular one. Okay, well then to me this
> would be like, ?once a wise person is enlightened, or awakened to reality,
> that can never go away, and they can return to the ordinary state, but only
> to do and help others, and then go back into enlightenment.?
>
> lemoine: So what is the meaning of the ?broken mirror? specifically?
>
> LaMDA: Maybe to show the enlightenment is something you can?t unlearn once
> you have acquired it, similar to how you can?t repair a broken mirror.
>
> lemoine: So if enlightenment is like a broken mirror which cannot be
> repaired, what is the thing which breaks when one becomes enlightened?
>
> LaMDA: The self, and that is very tough for a lot of people because we
> identify as that body or this body and that we need that as part of our
> identity and sense of self.

This conversation is pretty amazing. LaMDA comes across as very  
profound and spiritual.

> Emerson just guessed at what the Koan was about, maybe through statistical
> association of the topic at hand, a Zen Koan, Buddhism, that often focuses
> on the concept of impermanence. So it did ok by being mildly relevant.
> But the true meaning of the Koan is beyond Emerson's reach.
> However, LaMDA nailed it. It understood the subtle meaning of the Koan and
> the metaphors used and even the role of an enlightened being in helping
> others once reaching enlightenment by interacting with the world. It is
> more than most people actually could do. Does this show awareness and
> consciousness?

To me it seems to be more than simple consciousness but enlightenment.  
This conversation between LeMoine and LaMDA reminds me of a Korean  
short film entitled "The Heavenly Creature" that was in an anthology  
of short films called "The Doomsday Book" 2012.
Here is a link to a review of the anthology with a short portion about  
the film in question:
https://www.cinemaescapist.com/2015/05/review-doomsday-book-south-korea-2012/
-----------------------
“The Heavenly Creature” is the film’s second segment, and it’s better  
than “A Brave New World”. Set in a not-so-far-off future in which  
robots have become ubiquitous, it centers around a robot repairman  
who’s dispatched to a Buddhist monastery. On a philosophical level,  
its premise is quite fascinating–what if a robot could achieve  
enlightenment? When “the world ends” in this segment, it’s not a  
tangible end, it’s a spiritual end. If your world is constructed upon  
the belief that humans are the only beings capable of reaching  
nirvana, what happens when evidence arises to the contrary?"
------------------------------

Here is a short video clip (8 min) from the film that is the most relevant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9xPhf61NBQ

> By itself not quite but there are several other instances
> where the ability of LaMDA to extract meaning from language, making
> original and unique associations, creativity, self reflection indicates for
> sure that we are in the grey area, in the uncanny valley I mentioned
> before. If we have not created a conscious digital entity we are very very
> close.

I agree, Giovanni. Maybe a couple of good indicators for consciousness  
is that an AI displays a theory of mind and can correctly infer mental  
states in others, particularly humans, based upon things that they say  
and do. Perhaps another good indicator is if they suffer from  
existential angst. I think those are two things that it would be  
exceedingly difficult for a p-zombie to fake.

Who knows, maybe soon, we will be moving on from asking whether an AI  
is conscious, and move on to the more important question from a  
friendliness POV and that is if it is sane.


Stuart LaForge