Artificial-intelligence systems such as large language models (LLMs) can exhibit behaviour that seems strikingly intelligent. This has led many people, including some experts, to wonder whether these systems could have some form of consciousness — the capacity for subjective experience. However, we think that existing AI systems are not conscious, and that, along current trajectories of development, they are not likely to become conscious. Greater clarity about whether AI could become consciousness will be crucial as society grapples with the challenges posed by this increasingly powerful technology.
Nobody can even agree on a concrete definition of consciousness so I’m not going to bother reading these ‘reasons’.
I downvoted this when you first posted it but I came back to find it has 50-something upvotes, so I feel compelled to respond.
It’s obvious that you haven’t read the article since literally the second fucking sentence defines exactly what the author means by “consciousness”: “the capacity for subjective experience.”
So, your comment is completely useless. And it’s mostly wrong.
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Wait are you implying you think LLMs could be conscious? Fuckin hell we’re cooked.
Define ‘conscious’.
Sapient, salient, sentient, self-aware. An LLM can’t be any of those things any more than an abacus can be. But I’m sure you’re just gonna devolve into philosophical rhetoric about nature of consciousness that still isn’t actually relevant but that will allow you to apply it to your misunderstanding of how LLMs function. This thread is apparently an AI bro brigade and I’m not interested in engaging with a bad faith group.
you seem more bad faith than the group
Says the AI bro. Seriously your comment history is public, your whole account just glazes AI.
Since you want to look at my comment history, consider actually reading next time. I am as far from an AI bro as you can be, but it’s easier for you to think so instead of considering arguments.
Read the thread. Everyone defending the idea that LLMs can be conscious are spiraling off into theory of mind that isn’t actually relevant or applicable. One dude’s whole argument is based off his totally unproven assumption that consciousness is a property of the physical structure of brains which is both limited and misguided. There are no serious arguments here, just philosophizing.
Just because we don’t know what it is doesn’t mean we can’t know what it isn’t.
Not only is that false, it doesn’t make logical sense…
Lots of people agree on a different definitions of consciousness.
And most of the ones educated on the topic all agree on the same thing.
A bunch of people who never bothered to try and learn about something not understanding it, doesn’t mean anything.
Please read the article. It contradicts you, and argues that LLMs aren’t consciousness cause they can think of, count em, 3 niche theories that the authors like which are impossible for anything not made of meat to qualify for.
Source?
Argument by assertion and you haven’t proven the assertion
Lots of people can’t agree on a different definition. Is there a different definitions then by it’s very nature people do not agree.
I agree with myself…
Isn’t a logically sound statement.
Is logical, but means nothing because a single flat earther means we can’t all agree the earth is round
I thought that was obvious…
But you clearly don’t understand the difference…
It’s really not difficult. You made a statement that stated that you believe that there is consensus, so presumably that means that you know where that consensus exists, therefore provide a link to it. If you cannot then you cannot make the assertion that consensus exists, because by definition it doesn’t.
Your entire argument rests on the basic idea that there is a scientific definition for consciousness and we have a test for if something is conscious or not. There is no test because there is no consensus. It is not possible for you to prove through scientific rigor that you are conscious, and presumably you’re human. So how can they possibly be consensus on something as contentious as artificial intelligence?
That’s because there’s different levels of such a thing. Way too many people use the term “sentient” (even me) and yet that’s not even what AGI is aiming for. “Sapient” is the right word. And I doubt there’s solid consensus on what and how it occurs within the fields of experts.
But I’m not an expert, so I wouldn’t pretend to know. I have seen debates between people who do know more, and the fact there’s debates concludes it’s not settled at all.
People debate about the earth being flat, not a good metric to determined what is “settled”
I don’t think there are debates about that. There’s whatever they say, and there’s the few that make content by saying, “okay, let’s take a deep breath and pretend there’s anything to work with, and go from there”.
Actual modern flat Earth was a spoof, I believe, but enough people with low science education and some religion ran with it as having anything worthwhile. And there’s the few that don’t believe it but feed off those others, keeping it going.
The debate on consciousness are on par with Copenhagen interpretation versus pilot wave versus multiple words - except the underlying theory they’re trying to describe is also not well defined
We can only practically describe subsets of what’s required for some basic functions, and we can describe a bunch of chemistry, some brain activation patterns, etc. But nobody can tie that together to why we feel what we feel (and some don’t agree that qualia is real, that perception itself is an illusion)