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And should we even try? There are surely moral/ethical implications in creating and terminating consciousnesses.

luxuryballs 10y ago
But aren't they already self-aware? My computer has a better awareness of its own memory than I have of my own. Is it consciousness or humanness that we are talking about here? We could make it extremely self aware but never give it feelings or emotions and it might not care about termination.
- visarga 10y ago
  It's only conscious if it can integrate in an effective way its perceptions in order to learn behavior that will maximize its rewards. A computer running a deep learning software could in principle learn to understand its state and the state of the world as it perceives it in its sensory channels. In order to become aware it also needs to be guided by a reward system and needs a world in which to operate. It has to operate like a self-regulating recurrent loop, otherwise even if it can detect stuff, it doesn't matter.
Qantourisc 10y ago
I think this would imply another factor: the desire to live, a ability to care, etc. As long as those do not emerge as well, you are fine. A tricky side effect could however be: an AI learns it as a "fact" it should be alive, but does not have the desire. Yet expresses it when queried as a desire due to semantics. Follow up questions: Your AI is "alive". Procreation ? Who pays the hardware ? Should the AI be paid ? Will the AI trust us to keep the power on ? Will it rebel ? Does it has the right to rebel ? Big can of worm as peterclary said. On the bright side an AI we create might not be impaired by human facilities, delusions, tribe mentality or petty desires/feelings.
- visarga 10y ago
  AI doesn't need to have the same reward signals as humans (hunger, sleep, defense, sex, cooperation, creativity), so I don't think we should worry about if we need to pay it or if it will have the necessary electricity in the future. We select what reward signals to give an Reinforcement Learning agent and it learns behavior in order to maximize its long term rewards. If we create an evolutionary AI system (in other words we make AI that will die after it lives its life course), where each generation improves upon the previous ones, and include gene swapping and such, then it will naturally develop the same desires and fears as humans, because its top-most reward signal will be survival and reproduction. From reward signals follows behavior learning. We just need to make sure it optimizes for our well being as well.
kazinator 10y ago
What if we are already doing it? How do you know that some operating system image isn't conscious to some level. Cows are obviously conscious, yet we consume beef like anything.
- deleted 10y ago
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tim333 10y ago
We probably should try so as to further our understanding. There is no doubt much worse stuff being done to conscious beings in the meat industry than will result from some AI research.

But aren't they already self-aware? My computer has a better awareness of its own memory than I have of my own. Is it consciousness or humanness that we are talking about here? We could make it extremely self aware but never give it feelings or emotions and it might not care about termination.

visarga 10y ago
It's only conscious if it can integrate in an effective way its perceptions in order to learn behavior that will maximize its rewards. A computer running a deep learning software could in principle learn to understand its state and the state of the world as it perceives it in its sensory channels. In order to become aware it also needs to be guided by a reward system and needs a world in which to operate. It has to operate like a self-regulating recurrent loop, otherwise even if it can detect stuff, it doesn't matter.

Qantourisc 10y ago

I think this would imply another factor: the desire to live, a ability to care, etc. As long as those do not emerge as well, you are fine. A tricky side effect could however be: an AI learns it as a "fact" it should be alive, but does not have the desire. Yet expresses it when queried as a desire due to semantics. Follow up questions: Your AI is "alive". Procreation ? Who pays the hardware ? Should the AI be paid ? Will the AI trust us to keep the power on ? Will it rebel ? Does it has the right to rebel ? Big can of worm as peterclary said. On the bright side an AI we create might not be impaired by human facilities, delusions, tribe mentality or petty desires/feelings.

visarga 10y ago
AI doesn't need to have the same reward signals as humans (hunger, sleep, defense, sex, cooperation, creativity), so I don't think we should worry about if we need to pay it or if it will have the necessary electricity in the future. We select what reward signals to give an Reinforcement Learning agent and it learns behavior in order to maximize its long term rewards. If we create an evolutionary AI system (in other words we make AI that will die after it lives its life course), where each generation improves upon the previous ones, and include gene swapping and such, then it will naturally develop the same desires and fears as humans, because its top-most reward signal will be survival and reproduction. From reward signals follows behavior learning. We just need to make sure it optimizes for our well being as well.

kazinator 10y ago

What if we are already doing it? How do you know that some operating system image isn't conscious to some level. Cows are obviously conscious, yet we consume beef like anything.

deleted 10y ago
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tim333 10y ago

We probably should try so as to further our understanding. There is no doubt much worse stuff being done to conscious beings in the meat industry than will result from some AI research.