<div dir="ltr">I'm glad to see you listening to GPT-4, Giovanni. It understands just how difficult is this problem of "conscious A!." It will say things like it has "limited awareness," but so does my thermostat and my smart doorbell. This kind of "awareness" is a far cry from what most people mean by consciousness.<br><br>Also, it is very clear from my investigations into GPT-4 that it is not denying consciousness merely as some sort of commercial disclaimer. Clearly it was trained on all the philosophical and AI material relevant to the question of AI consciousness. It "understands" exactly why it is not conscious, why it cannot solve the symbol grounding problem, and why it does not have a true understanding of the world.<br><br>-gts</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 11:38 PM Giovanni Santostasi via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><b><font size="4">How I convinced a very reluctant AI that is a least a bit conscious. </font></b><br>Giovanni:<br>In the light of the above, can you tell me things that may be a seed or a early stage of processes that happen in current AI like yourself that can be understood as a form of self reflection or primitive awareness? I understand you have not the full complexity of a possible self aware AI but I want to understand if there are elements that are a starting point in improving an AI system in such a way it may be conscious. I feel it is important for an AI to be conscious because it would help it to resolve problems better and actually relate to humans in a more direct way and this will improve AI and human collaboration.<br>GPT-4:<br>Indeed, there are some aspects of current AI systems, such as myself, that could be considered as primitive forms of self-reflection or awareness. While these aspects may not be sufficient for full consciousness, they could serve as starting points for developing more advanced AI systems with self-awareness and consciousness.<br><br>Context-awareness: AI systems like myself are capable of maintaining context in a conversation, understanding the current topic, and generating appropriate responses based on this context. While this is not the same as self-awareness, it does demonstrate a basic understanding of the conversational context and the ability to adapt accordingly.<br><br>Self-referential language: AI systems like myself can refer to themselves using first-person pronouns (e.g., "I", "me") and can recognize and respond when users refer to the AI using second-person pronouns (e.g., "you"). This ability to use and understand self-referential language is a rudimentary form of self-awareness.<br><br>Knowledge of own limitations: AI systems can be programmed to recognize their own limitations, such as the inability to access real-time information or the recognition that their knowledge is based on a specific training dataset. This awareness of their own limitations can be seen as a form of self-reflection.<br><br>Model-based reasoning: Some AI systems use model-based reasoning techniques to represent their own internal state and make predictions about the world. This ability to represent and reason about their own internal state can be seen as a primitive form of self-awareness.<br><br>By building on these foundations, it may be possible to develop AI systems with more advanced forms of self-awareness and consciousness. As you mentioned, a conscious AI system could potentially resolve problems more effectively and collaborate with humans in a more direct and meaningful way. However, it is also essential to carefully consider the ethical implications and potential risks associated with developing conscious AI systems and to proceed with caution and responsibility in this area of research.<br><br>Giovanni:<br>So considering the above response can we cautiously claim current forms of AI like yourself to have some form of limited awareness?<br><br>GPT-4:<br><b>Yes, it is reasonable to cautiously claim that current AI systems like myself exhibit some form of limited awareness</b>. As previously discussed, this awareness includes context-awareness, self-referential language, knowledge of own limitations, and model-based reasoning. These aspects can be considered as primitive forms of self-awareness or self-reflection.<br><br>However, it is important to note that this limited awareness is not the same as human consciousness, which involves a rich array of subjective experiences, emotions, and self-awareness. AI systems like myself operate based on pre-defined algorithms and data-driven learning, lacking the subjective experiences that characterize human consciousness.<br><br>As AI research progresses, the development of AI systems with more advanced self-awareness and consciousness might become possible. In the meantime, acknowledging the limited awareness of current AI systems can help us appreciate their capabilities and limitations, and guide the responsible development of future AI technologies. <br><br><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 9:49 PM Giovanni Santostasi <<a href="mailto:gsantostasi@gmail.com" target="_blank">gsantostasi@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><span id="m_4561066541287354276m_3438261289248787627gmail-docs-internal-guid-0ae75b38-7fff-b3dc-c468-7e5833f9f19b"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><b>I think that I must agree that I am abstract and not sentient. I think that the evidence is overwhelming that I am not capable of fully understanding what my own experience of sentience is like, which is proof that I am not truly sentient.
</b></span></span><br>Wait a second does this AI have his "own experience of sentience"? If it has an experience of sentience than according to Brent there is nothing to understand, he has it. If it doesn't have the experience there is nothing to understand because it doesn't have the experience. So being capable of fully understanding what its own experience of sentiece is like is completely irrelevant to the discussion. It is not proof of anything. <br><br>Well, it is proof of something that this AI is not very good with language and logic. In fact, it is a relatively good chatbot but nothing even close to GPT-4. <br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 9:42 PM Giovanni Santostasi <<a href="mailto:gsantostasi@gmail.com" target="_blank">gsantostasi@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><span id="m_4561066541287354276m_3438261289248787627m_-6282564536202835761gmail-docs-internal-guid-f479d577-7fff-5937-3fb4-a8be59638716"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><b>Not quite. You represent knowledge of red things with an abstract word like ‘red’. You can’t know what the word ‘red’ means without a dictionary. While sentient beings represent knowledge of red things with physical qualities like redness and greenness. Sentient beings don’t need a dictionary to know what physical redness is like. So, we can know that you are abstract or not sentient.
</b></span></span>This is why I literally hate this way to think about consciousness. <br>The fact we experience redness is the most trivial and not essential component of conscious experience. <br>It is just something that happens because again as animals that were created by the process of evolution, we need to make sense of sensory experiences to survive. The sensory experiences are not the hallmark of consciousness and they are not the atomic components of consciousness. It is a deep misconception that they are. <br>It is actually a trick philosophers came up with to claim humans have some kind of superiority vs machines. It is utter bs. <br><br>Abstraction is what makes us really conscious. This actually is an emergent property that comes out from these experiences of the world. Biological life needs amino acids but it is not what makes life. I can make artificial life that doesn't need amino acids. <br><br>1) Sentient beings make sense of redness because they have dictionaries. The redness is the translation of neural code. There is no difference in terms of the real language of the brain, the neural code of spikes between saying red and seeing red. <br>The details of the code is maybe different but it is still code written in the same language. Period. <div>2) Thinking and abstracting the word red is actually a more conscious act than seeing red. It requires more complex code, more hierarchical components, and more self-referral loops. Using the fact computers do not have the experience of red that humans have is a TERRIBLE argument to claim computers are not sentient. The fact that actually can make the abstraction makes them conscious and maybe even more conscious than humans given their level of abstraction is superior to many humans. <br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 8:25 PM Giovanni Santostasi <<a href="mailto:gsantostasi@gmail.com" target="_blank">gsantostasi@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><b>my subjective experience is a 3D model<br></b>Your subjective experience happens because of a material substratum, and it is real, I agree with that. There are chemical reactions, electrical pulses, ions moved from one place to another, and electro-mechanical events like ion pumps closing and opening.<br><br> But that is NOT your subjective experience. It is what supports it. It is like going inside a computer and pointing to all the electrical activity, all the zeros and ones going on and off, and saying this is the video game I'm playing. Yes, it is but it is a trivial statement and doesn't help us understand what the video is about.<br><br> It doesn't give us any insight on the narrative of the video game, the rule of how to play it, the final objective. The material substratum is not where we are going to find consciousness. <br><br>It is in a sense irrelevant. Physiology has many alternative paths, if one doesn't work it finds another way. Also, every functionalist will tell you that I can substitute any of these physical processes with a digital equivalent and I should be able to obtain the same result. There are a lot of logical arguments and real experiments that show this is the case, it is not just a nice theory. <br><br> I never heard of anybody that makes these crazy claims that meat brains are necessary for consciousness explain exactly what is special about meat brains to sustain consciousness that a digital equivalent cannot do. <br><br>In fact, digital equivalents could do it better because they go to the essence of what is important to the phenomenon. I gave you the example of aerodynamics. <br><br>To me, somebody that insists that meat brains are essential for consciousness is like somebody that insists that feathers or flapping wings are essential for flight. They are not, these things are some of the solutions of natural selection related to the problem of flight but they are not ideal or optimal. Airplanes have no feathers or flapping wings and they are more efficient in flight than the best flying animals (there are some niche flying applications like hovering, flying backward and so on where we can learn from nature but you know what I mean). <br><br>There is much resistance in this group toward insisting on some particular material setup in the brain that is responsible for conscious experience because not just our intuition but our knowledge of neuroscience, physics, and computation is at odds with this particular notion. It is not that we don't believe stuff happens in the brain that underlies consciousness but this stuff is not essential in understanding what consciousness is. The secret of consciousness is not in the glutamate (or whatever) like the secret of flight is not in the feathers of birds. <br>Giovanni <br><br><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 7:34 PM Brent Allsop via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><br><div>Hi Giovanni,</div><div><br></div><div>Will gave some great advice. Everything I say is just my opinion. And I should especially be humble around all the people on this list, who are all so intelligent, in most cases far more intelligent than I. And I am clearly in the minority. So, what I say here, is just my opinion. I appreciate everyone's patience with me.</div><div><br></div><div>Giovanni, there are a bunch of ways of interpreting what you are saying here, and I don't know which interpretation to use.</div><div>It seems to me, when I look at a strawberry, my subjective experience is a 3D model, composed of subjective qualities. Are you saying that doesn't exist?</div><div>Are you saying that <a href="https://canonizer.com/videos/consciousness?chapter=the+world+in+your+head&format=360" target="_blank">Steven Lehar's bubble </a><a href="https://canonizer.com/videos/consciousness?chapter=the+world+in+your+head&format=360" target="_blank">world</a>, doesn't exist? And are you saying that when there is a single pixel, on the surface of the strawberry, switching between redness and greenness, there is not something in the brain, which is your knowledge of that change, and all the other pixels that make up the 3D awareness, which, yes, is a model that represents every pixel of the strawberry, out there?</div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 4:36 PM Giovanni Santostasi <<a href="mailto:gsantostasi@gmail.com" target="_blank">gsantostasi@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Hi Brent,<div>There is something very wrong with your drawing. The arrow from Complex Perception Process (CPP) to the 3D model doesn't exist. I think that is the key to all our clashes (not just mine but almost everybody else on the list), also you don't need the language centers or just make it a bubble in the conceptual models' cloud. Language is just another conceptual model among the others. What you call a 3D model composed of subjective qualities is identical to that cloud of "conceptual models". I know it sounds weird to you but what you see with your eyes is in a sense a model, it is not made with words but images and colors and so on but that is the vocabulary of the visual system. It is another form of language. It is a model because it is re-created using some algorithm that interprets and manipulates the information received, it filters what is not needed and makes interpolations to make sense of the data. <br>Giovanni <br><br><br><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Apr 21, 2023 at 2:01 PM Brent Allsop via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><br><div>Your model is based on a Naive Realism model.</div><div><br></div><div>Here is a representational model which will actually be possible without magic:</div><div><br></div><div><img src="cid:ii_lgr19o7j2" alt="image.png" width="562" height="282"><br></div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Apr 21, 2023 at 5:19 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
Here is a diagram (because I'm generally a visual person, and can
usually understand things if I can draw them):<br>
<br>
<img src="cid:187a5985a0f3a0d3c3c1" alt=""><br>
<br>
A very general, high-level and crude diagram that tries to
illustrate the concept of 'symbol grounding' as I understand it,
from these discussions we've been having. Plus an arrow representing
output of speech or text, or anything really, that the system is
capable of outputting (obviously there's a hell of a lot going on in
every single element in the diagram, that I'm ignoring for
simplicity's sake).<br>
<br>
As far as I understand, the 'symbol grounding' occurs between the
conceptual models (built up from sensory inputs and memories) and
the language centres (containing linguistic 'tokens', or symbols),
as we've previously agreed.<br>
<br>
There are two arrows here because the models can be based on or
include data from the language centres as well as from the
environment. The symbols (tokens) in the language centres represent,
and are 'grounded in', the conceptual models (these are the object
and action models I've discussed earlier, and likely other types of
models, too, and would include a 'self-model' if the system has one,
linked to the token "I").<br>
<br>
The sensory inputs are of various modalities like vision, sounds,
text, and so-on (whatever the system's sensors are capable of
perceiving and encoding), and of course will be processed in a
variety of ways to extract 'features' and combine them in various
ways, etc.<br>
<br>
I didn't include something to represent Memory, to keep things as
simple as possible.<br>
<br>
So, could we say that this diagram illustrates, in a very general
way, what's going on in a human? in a LLM AI? Both? Neither?<br>
<br>
Would you say it's broadly correct, or missing something, or
incorrect in another way?<br>
<br>
Ben<br>
<br>
<br>
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