[ExI] Seemingly Conscious AI Is Coming

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of BillK via extropy-chat
Subject: [ExI] Seemingly Conscious AI Is Coming

Seemingly Conscious AI Is Coming
Sep 15, 2025 Mustafa Suleyman

>...Debates about whether AI truly can be conscious are a distraction.
>...What matters in the near term is the perception that they are – and why the temptation to design AI systems that foster this perception must be resisted.

<https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/seemingly-conscious-ai-urgent-threat-tech-industry-must-address-by-mustafa-suleyman-2025-09>...
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>...This is the "consciousness" problem becoming real...

Not becoming, BillK, it IS real.

>...If an AI successfully appears to be conscious, how can we test whether it is a really conscious creation?
BillK

Suleyman's first line tells the truth: that question is a distraction, a sidetrack in a way, for we have more immediate problems.

That phenom of lonely geeks falling in love with their AI-driven avatar, convincing themselves she is real, is real.  My father in law talking sports with Gemini and preferring it to his few other fellow humans who follow sports, that's real (Gemini knows everything about every pro-sports game ever played.)

OK then, never mind if it is conscious and how to test it.  If AI convinces people to do bad things, then it is the functional equivalent of a conscious AI doing the bad things.

spike




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