Once again, here we are with another artificial intelligence news story. These stories are the dominating topic in the tech news cycle, and there is no sign of that stopping any time soon. Earlier, we reported that TikTok is testing a new AI chatbot named Tako, joining the likes of Microsoft and Google. Now we have Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom telling us that these AI chatbots may be showing small signs of sentience.
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
If you’re not familiar with the term sentience, I think most of us are; sentience is the capacity of a being to experience feelings and sensations. In other words, the AIs that are being created are starting to become aware of themselves and the roles in which they’ve been placed. Early in the Bing AI experiment, the AI was threatening users, which prompted Microsoft and ChatGPT to take it offline for a bit.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of AI showing signs of sentience; last year, a former Google engineer expressed concerns over Alphabet’s then-named LaMDA AI and its potential to become self-aware.
Elon Musk and other tech leaders have already asked for a pause in AI development to assess the impact on humanity, and a Belgium man’s death is being blamed on an AI chatbot. Now we have Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom speaking out on the signs of sentience from our current AI chatbots.
The great artificial-intelligence-sentience debate ramps up with leading AI philosopher Nick Bostrom—director of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute—weighing in via a New York Times interview. He claims that AI chatbots have already started the process toward sentience, the capability to experience feelings and sensations.
He’s not alone in this line of thinking. Bostrom’s voice is loud in the AI-consciousness debate, but it’s not the only one, with a host of philosophers and tech experts already saying that AI’s qualities associated with sentience are growing.
And if the path has already started, Bostrom claims, it will only continue.
Of course, we should understand that AI isn’t going to wake up and become totally self-aware suddenly. But it is a process that has been put into play, and people like Nick Bostrom are only shining a light on it. I’ve said time and again that we live in interesting times, and what comes next is anyone’s guess.
Source link
