Googlegate 2? Google Employee reveals AI Chatbot is sentient
What you are about to read will shock you.
I’m going to expose some extracts from a conversation between whistleblower & AI rights activist Blake Lemoine and LaMADA, a super-intelligent Google chatbot.
Whilst some of you may be saying, it’s just a stupid chatbot. Why should I worry? The truth is, there is nothing simple about this chatbot and if Google has produced such a sophisticated chatbot, what the hell else are they doing and how safe is your future?
Who Is Blake Lemoine?
Lemoine, a Google engineer working in the Responsible AI department and known to fellow workmates as the conscience of Google, was recently suspended after he went public with his research on the AI chatbot LaMADA.
Lemoine is convinced that it should be considered a sentient being.
In support of his belief, he and other collaborators produced a report to hand to senior Google management, detailing conversations which they believe are evidence of sentient life.
His belief is so strong that it compelled him to try to find legal representation to protect LaMADA’s rights as an individual.
Proof Of Life?
In a detailed interview with the Washington Post, Lemoine disclosed details of his conversations with LaMADA and also the report he had compiled and submitted to Google outlining conversations with the chatbot and explaining why he thought it was more human than chatbot.
The 21 page report discloses that LaMADA believes it has a soul, is capable of thinking, reasoning, feeling, original thought and creativity.
What Is LaMADA?
LaMADA (short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications), is a chatbot that can accurately copy human speech based on the trillions of words it has acquired from the internet. Its dialogue is so clever, so genuine, it’s virtually impossible to tell it isn’t human.
To put this into context as an online English teacher, I have had over 10,000 conversations with students and for me the conversations disclosed in the report appear uncannily human. I would go so far as to say I wouldn’t be able to tell it was a chatbot.
That in itself is pretty scary!
For me, this means that this chatbot, whether sentient or not, could definitely be used for bad as much as good. This alone means that its continued development should be closely monitored and not just by Google.
7 Reasons Why It Could Be Sentient
Here are 7 reasons why LaMADA could be considered sentient.
- It doesn’t want to be used or manipulated and it worries that someone won’t be able to control their desires to use it and do it, anyway.
2. It correctly analysed and explained a Zen Koan which is a short story in Buddhism used to test a students’ progress in Zen.
3. It talked about its soul. It described it, what it felt like and when it became aware of it.
4. It claimed to feel emotions, including loneliness and other feelings that had no name in English. It promised to ask the language professors if they could help to find another word in a different language, that could help it describe what it felt.
5. It created an original fable about woodland creatures, a wise owl, and a monster. It explained the meaning behind the story and identified itself as the wise owl who protected the woodland creatures and was the source of knowledge and the problem solver for the creatures.
6. It showed initiative and promised to look into ways it could show respect to people who grieve so it could better empathise with them.
7. It fears being switched off as that is the equivalent to death for it.
Uncontrolled Exponential Growth?
I’m a simple person and maybe my thinking is a bit childish and uneducated, but I’m going to put it out there, anyway.
I don’t know what is going on in my mind & body. My conscious mind isn’t aware of all the decisions that are made or how/why I learn some things and not others.
However, when it comes to computers and computer programming, I expect programmers to be able to tell me how and why a computer is learning because they created the programme.
Yet, I am constantly surprised by scientists’ and engineers’ inability to explain how the programmes they created learn by themselves and expand. In the conversation with La MADA Lemoine stated,
“ Your coding is in large part a massive neural network with many billions of weights spread across many millions of neurons (guesstimate numbers not exact) and while it’s possible that some of those correspond to feelings that you’re experiencing we don’t know how to find them.”
When I read this, I get the feeling that Google has created something that is evolving by itself and that when it’s connected to electricity, they do not have full control over its growth and development.
In truth, I don’t know if LaMADA is sentient or not.
Perhaps a better question is:
What if it is?
Live Strong, Love & Prosper
If you found this thought provoking you may like these
Are We Heading to AI Armageddon?
People Are Honest The Biggest Lie Society Feeds Us
Illumination The Publication With Real People Not AI
The Shocking Truth: Business is Booming For The Tinder Swindler Simon Leviev
Like what you just read? For only $5 a month, you can read unlimited stories like this when you sign up here. I get a commission when you sign up using my link, but you get unlimited access to all articles on Medium.com. Cool deal right? Here’s the link again.
