goldygnome t1_irtg1ja wrote on October 10, 2022 at 10:20 PM

Reply to comment by HeinrichTheWolf_17 in Why does everyone assume that AI will be conscious? by Rumianti6

Animals have demonstrated self awareness, so it's not just humans.

Random mutations gave rise to conciseness, driven by evolution. The key difference is that we are directing the evolution of AI and our measure of fitness isn't the same as natural selection.

Op's phrasing might have been a bit combative, but I think the question is fair. Why do we assume that an artificial mind created under artificial conditions for our purposes will become conscious? To me that's like assuming alien intelligence will be humanoid.

MrTacobeans t1_irtydxz wrote on October 11, 2022 at 12:44 AM

Even dogs/cats which aren't on the upper end of animal intelligence display consciousness on a scale that completely beats out their wild counterparts. Both my dog and cat display signs that they are thinking and not just in some autopilot type instinct based thought process. When danger/survival is removed from the equation I wouldn't doubt most animals start to display active consciousness

kneedeepco t1_irubfki wrote on October 11, 2022 at 2:23 AM

Who says it was "random mutations"? It could be a mere benchmark in evolution and any evolving entity, including an AI, will reach that point.

NightmareOmega t1_irukitl wrote on October 11, 2022 at 3:37 AM

If any sufficiently complex system resulted in consciousness we would already see random occurrences popping up across varying super computers, many of which possess the required FLOPS. Also AI don't evolve, they're designed.

michaelhoney t1_irvml4y wrote on October 11, 2022 at 11:45 AM

Being really fast is not the same as being sufficiently complex, though. “Complex, in the right way” is important.

FjordTV t1_irw1wko wrote on October 11, 2022 at 1:57 PM

Yup.

I can't remember the numbers right now, but as the size of a neural net starts to surpass that of the human brain it's theorized that it's more and more likely to give rise to consciousness. I think GPT-4 is supposed to get us pretty close, if not over the threshold.

NightmareOmega t1_irw8u0c wrote on October 11, 2022 at 2:47 PM

No argument there. But where does the leap from "we have a box which could arguably hold a consciousness" to "any sufficiently complex box will spawn consciousness" come from? I'm not saying it's impossible but where is the supporting evidence?

michaelhoney t1_irzeinc wrote on October 12, 2022 at 4:22 AM

Fair point: conscious things not made of evolved meat are still hypothetical, as a far as we know. We don’t yet know what the secret sauce is.

CrummyWombat t1_irufzrd wrote on October 11, 2022 at 2:59 AM

I think it’s safe to assume that people will create a conscious AI intentionally, if not accidentally first.