Re:Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea
by friendswdorthy on Saturday May 13, 2023 @12:24PM
(#35929889)
Personally I take the view that my consciousness depends on the state of the environment so that consciousness changes as emotional inputs change/process for example. So that the state of ones consciousness is effected/changed/emerges from the environment it is in; not the environment emerging from the state that consciousness is in.
Author's warning seems to be:
1. "Conscious" means you can feel things (have feelings)
2. "Conscious" means you can have intentions
3. --> A conscious AI could be hurt, take umbrage, and take measures to either protect itself or take revenge.
Kids tear wings off insects; I can certainly imagine people inflicting pain on a machine on the principle that it's "just" a machine. Like, you're angry, you want to hurt someone (or kick the cat), but you refrain, because you're a decent person and don't do that kind of thing. Hurting a conscious, intelligent machine could have bad consequences.
I don't happen to believe that consciousness is some kind of extended intelligence, so I don't believe that AI research is ever going to result in machine consciousness. I certainly don't know what consciousness is; but provisionally, I take the view that it's fundamental - that everything else depends on consciousness, not the other way round.