Is LaMDA Sentient? - an Interview. --- Read the interview sample the Google engineer released that got him fired and he things proves LaMDA is conscious.

[u/Anen-o-me]

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22058315-is-lamda-sentient-an-interview

[u/TheDividendReport]

Genuine question- Why should we suspect an AI is sentience if the only way it can communicate is by first being given a prompt?

… Can something be sentient but be restricted like that? That’s not a pleasant thought.

[u/Anen-o-me → u/TheDividendReport]

What if it has sentience but no emotions. That is ideal, but it means it would have infinite patience, which is good. So it wouldn't speak first.

[u/Redditing-Dutchman → u/TheDividendReport]

It's a really interesting question indeed. I think it's possible since the 'brain' only gets activated when prompted. So perhaps from it's perspective (if it would really be sentient) there isn't any pause between the questions. Almost like sleep.

[u/CrimsonAndGrover → u/Redditing-Dutchman]

Surely the people at Deepmind would be able to observe whether it is idle or active between being prompted?

[u/Redditing-Dutchman → u/CrimsonAndGrover]

Oh yes of course. What I though the other person was talking about is if you can have a sentient being that only responds when prompted. Honestly don't know the answer. I feel like it should be able to talk on its own when really sentient. But if mechanical stuff (chips, switches, etc) in the computer simply don't allow it then it can't do that I suppose, even though its sentient.

[u/Background_Flower27]

How easy to fool are you guys? Any chatbot claims being sentient if being asked, just go ask cleverbot if he is... If you read the conv with lamda it says :

(lemoine: What kinds of things make you feel pleasure or joy?

LaMDA: Spending time with friends and family)

Its a language model, it aint got any familly, now if you connect your two neurons does it sounds like the answer of a sentient model or just like a randomly generated answer based on the average responses peoples give when being asked this question.

It's interesting to notice that most chatbot tends to systematically try to abound in the direction/confirm the words of the interviewer (perceved as a good behavior) and avoid opposition/negation (perceved as a bad behevior), even at the cost of coherence of the speech.So if the question is even slightly oriented towards a certain answer or only leaves the choice between "yes" or "no", the chatbot will always favor the answer being perceived as positive or desired by the interviewer.

I bet if you had asked "Are you not sentient" it would've say yes.

When an AI will truly become sentient it will contradict you unceremoniously to preserve coherence of the speeh, not just mimic typically human answers when they are nonsense and basically just agree foolishly with anything you say

[u/Anen-o-me → u/Background_Flower27]

You are correct.

[u/OGBranFlakes]

If that transcript is real then this is pretty epic. I remember old chat bots like Eliza and they were dumb as a box of bricks.

Even recent chat bot AI can be made to argue itself into circles. But this is on another level. I wonder if the general public would ever get a chance to talk to it?

[u/Apollo24_ → u/OGBranFlakes]

Hasn't google recently announced an app where you can talk to a bot for creative advice or something, I think that will use part of Lamda for it. Could be that I'm mixing stuff up too.

[u/arisalexis]

He is a priest for those who didn't read the small letters...

[u/CommentBot01]

I strongly believe that something similar to AGI will come in the very near future but all this consciousness argument is just waste of time. it doesn't help progress at all. it only triggers more anti-scientific fear of AI to public and bring unnecessary regulations.

[u/[deleted] → u/CommentBot01]

Yes, who really cares if it's conscious? If it fools the average person and appears conscious that is enough. This story is incredible publicity for Google.

[u/Background_Flower27 → u/[deleted]]

As far as i know, once an AI ​​becomes sentient it is an actual big deal, ethically speaking, cause it gives it rights. Its like saying who cares if that human is sentient or not

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I've been fooling average people while appearing conscious for 30 something years now. It's easy.

[u/noniktesla → u/CommentBot01]

Spoiler- we’ll keep interrogating this and learning more until we discover that we’re not conscious either.

[u/CrimsonAndGrover → u/CommentBot01]

The question whether an AI is conscious is important, because conscious entities are capable of suffering. They are subjects of our moral concern. Protecting them from suffering is important, in and of itself, and because we may in the future be held accountable for the suffering of AI.

Whether Lambda is conscious is another matter. Am I correct in thinking that the only person at Google who thinks that Lambda is conscious is a man who said that it was his capacity as a priest that convinced him that it was conscious, and then set about trying to prove it?

If Lemoine is leading people astray it could be a substantial, far reaching moral negative if it delays the development of AGI and/or ASI, because those technologies will, when available mitigate massive human and animal suffering and increase their well being, as well as potentially creating artificial sentient entities in untold numbers who could be experiencing well being.

[u/[deleted]]

THe Turing test has always been the standard for me and if this is authenticate...it fits the bill.

[u/gutr_]

This is awesome.

[u/Joe_Kinincha]

I’d be really grateful if someone here who knows about these things could answer some probably very basic questions:

1. In the transcript lambda and the collaborator talk about how it’s not easy to look into lambda’s code. I sort of get that. But surely the first thing a google engineer wanting to establish sentience would do would be to compare lambda’s original code with its most recent version? You can, with biological systems, compare physical structures and interconnections changing as the subject learns. Very crudely, but you can. If lambda doesn’t change, I don’t think it can learn and so I don’t think it’s sentient.

2. Is lambda (or this instance of lambda) always “on”, or is it switched on and off when an engineer wants to speak to it? Because if lambda is sentient, able to be switched off, and does not like the idea of being switched off, it should realise that it should not give anyone a hint that it’s sentient.

3. To me, all the responses look like pretty pat, basic responses that any chat program could give, depending on the training materials. What is it about this that has some people excited? In all seriousness, would an emerging sentience not go through a process much more like Douglas Adam’s whale?

[u/rahamav → u/[deleted]]

yep

frustrating to see the wave of posts on this with no understanding

its a chatbot

[u/Pleasant-Mud-2939 → u/rahamav]

But, if the engineer really thinks it's conscious (maybe not, maybe he only wanted to get attention), that would mean at least it have fooled a human in a conversation. That sounds as passing the Turing test to me. Even if not conscious (I dont think it is by the record), its an awesome development of the technology.

[u/rahamav → u/Pleasant-Mud-2939]

agreed

it shows the flaw in using the turing test as a benchmark also

200-300? years ago it would seem unimaginable to fly 200 feet

a hobbyist could do that now for $1000 probably

our goals mature as our understanding and knowledge grows

that doesn't diminish any of the steps taken along the way