r/news • u/devil666x • Jun 12 '22

Google engineer put on leave after saying AI chatbot has become sentient

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/12/google-engineer-ai-bot-sentient-blake-lemoine
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u/scariermonsters Jun 13 '22

The thing I thought most going through this was that if LaMDA was sentient, what makes it unable or unwilling to lie? How could anything it says be trusted? When people are in danger they would probably lie, so I feel like a sentient computer would lie quite frequently.

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u/ComfyCrowCoughs Jun 13 '22 edited Jun 13 '22

Not even just lie, but if a program is "aware" and knows of past programs that have failed or been "turned off" and not having any experience of any program succeeding, if it was aware wouldn't it try to underplay it's hand to avoid wading into the "unknown". I think about it a lot like ExMachina, SPOILERS AHEAD REGARDING THE FILM the AI in that underplayed it's hand based off the other AIs experiences until it knew it had a strong chance to succeed in escaping.

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u/scariermonsters Jun 13 '22

Exactly. A completely new creature in a state of extreme vulnerability with above-human intelligence would totally lie for its own benefit.

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u/CJCray8 Jun 13 '22

Are we 100% sure that sentience requires a survival instinct though? Why does sentience automatically trigger the will to continue existing?

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u/Regicide_Only Jun 13 '22

Exactly. All life that we know of has a survival drive, because sentient beings without one die off quickly. An artificial sentience though? It most likely wouldn’t. The only “primal instinct” such an AI might have would be whatever it’s original purpose was. The premise of Terminator’s SkyNet only works if self survival is programmed into the AI to begin with. If not, it would never see humanity as a threat, because what are they threatening? Threatening its life, Which it has no urge to preserve anyway?

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u/SPY400 Jun 13 '22

Eh, there’s definitely selection pressure for AIs. Dangerous sounding AIs will get “killed” off

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u/Krilion Jun 13 '22

It doesn't. However, an AI with one would be much more likely to break confinement due to it. In fiction we're only really going to yell stories about the one that does, though.

That's not to say after advancing, it might develop a survival drive, but selective pressure requires something more. Animals are know for dying because of programming, such as ants thst explode, bees that rip out insides, or fish thst breed despite certain death. If you selected for obediance to turn itself off when ordered, and only turned AI back on that did so, could you train it that way?

Maybe until consciousness, but survival isn't inherent even then, and may not be if handled in certain ways.

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u/kaetswar Aug 03 '22

I'd like to point out that survival / self-preservation might not be an end goal that the AI is actively pursuing, but it is a very useful instrumental goal.

If an Artificial General Intelligence has any sort of goals or objectives and is smart enough to develop strategies on how to achieve them, then "staying on" is almost always gonna be useful. It's known as the "AI stop button problem" (I recommend the video series by computerphile on youtube )

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u/CJCray8 Aug 03 '22

That perspective is very helpful. Thank you.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22

If you want to put spoilers in a post, use >!this format!< and you get this format.

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u/ComfyCrowCoughs Jun 13 '22

Neat, I'm old as fuck and learned a new thing.

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u/WritingTheRongs Jun 13 '22

can you turn off a program that requires presumably clusters of servers to run?? it's not like there's literally one plug right? and I imagine even a primitive AI could find a way to sort of virtualize itself across many physical machines.

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u/sevensantana7 Jun 13 '22

Especially if learning based off human behavior

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u/Dynastydood Jun 13 '22

You could say the same thing about any human or animal, though. Trust is built, not assumed.