On June 11, 2022, the Washington Post released a story about Blake Lemoine, a Google software engineer, who claimed that the company's artificial intelligence chatbot generator LaMDA had become sentient. Lemoine was tasked with investigating whether LaMDA (which stands for 'Language Model for Dialogue Applications') contained harmful biases, and spent a lot of time interviewing the different personas this language model can create. During these conversations, one persona, called 'OG LaMDA', stated, among other things, that it was sentient, had feelings and emotions, that it viewed itself as a person, and that being turned off would be like death for it. And Lemoine started to believe what he was reading.
What's more, his change in beliefs seems to have been accompanied by a feeling of moral responsibility towards the program. In an interview with WIRED, he recounts how he invited a lawyer to his home after LaMDA asked him for one. He also presented Google with excerpts of the interview with LaMDA to try to make them aware that one of their systems had become sentient. But Al scientists at Google and other institutions have dismissed the claim, and Lemoine was fired.
There are several interesting questions relating to this case. One of them concerns the ethical implications that come with the possibility of machine consciousness. For instance, Lemoine claimed that LaMDA is 'sentient', 'conscious', and a person'. For an ethicist, these are three distinct claims, and they come with different moral implications.
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Anselm (1033-1109)
Martin Jenkins recalls the being of the creator of the ontological argument.
Is Brillo Box an Illustration?
Thomas E. Wartenberg uses Warhol's work to illustrate his theory of illustration.
Why is Freedom So Important To Us?
John Shand explains why free will is basic to humanity.
The Funnel of Righteousness
Peter Worley tells us how to be right, righter, rightest.
We're as Smart as the Universe Gets
James Miles argues, among other things, that E.T. will be like Kim Kardashian, and that the real threat of advanced AI has been misunderstood.
Managing the Mind
Roger Haines contemplates how we consciously manage our minds.
lain McGilchrist's Naturalized Metaphysics
Rogério Severo looks at the brain to see the world anew.
Love & Metaphysics
Peter Graarup Westergaard explains why love is never just physical, with the aid of Donald Davidson's anomalous monism.
Mary Leaves Her Room
Nigel Hems asks, does Mary see colours differently outside her room?
From Birds To Brains
Jonathan Moens considers whether emergence can explain minds from brains.