Artificial intelligence is often a part of several speculations, often bordering on themes similar to science fiction. Among this is the prospect of sentient AI. The development of consciousness in AI and its subsequent sentience has been a topic of both debate and speculation for several decades. Even before the conceptualization of modern computers in themselves, speculations surrounding automatons and autonomous machines becoming a part of civilization have existed in human society. The recent success of natural language processing and its impressive results in the development of chatbots have led to a return of these speculations. With fears of automation abounding, there have also been requests and demands to pause AI development and its proliferation for the time being. All of these events play into the overarching fears of a potentially malicious and sentient AI algorithm that some fear might take over human civilization. While this does indeed sound far-fetched for the time being, it is important to assess where humans’ AI development currently stands, alongside understanding sentience for what it is.
Though language model artificial intelligence is highly impressive in its feats, it still commits obvious errors and mistakes, making it fairly unreliable for highly sensitive tasks. Humans still rely on their intelligence and capabilities for high-stakes jobs and are endowed with critical thinking skills to solve even everyday problems. Though hypothetical concepts such as artificial general intelligence do exist in the scientific community, humans’ understanding of consciousness and its resultant phenomenon—sentience—is still limited. The below sections explore these hypotheses and the prospects of a sentient AI, if it ever does come into existence.
Is AI Sentient? What Would AI Sentience Seem Like?
Current AI systems, despite their advanced responses, are not sentient.
Though coherent responses from language models might seem like indicators of sentience in artificial intelligence, these responses to user queries come from complex machine learning algorithms that help language models function. The efficiency and promptness of these models might sometimes fool a few users into thinking that these are signs of sentient behavior. However, current AI cannot think for itself and relies on correlations between different words and data to arrive at conclusions. Humans, on the other hand, have a more organic approach to information processing, giving them an intuitive edge over the average computer algorithm. A sentient AI would have to have its impressions of the environment it functions in, its own opinions, and its innate understanding of the information it processes. Though current language models seem like they’re well-versed with the information they present, they merely condense existing information and repackage it based on their training data sets. Apart from mere rational or independent opinions on topics, AI sentience will also result in algorithms eliciting feelings and emotions. However, this is speculation thus far, and there is no empirical evidence to suggest that AI systems are or will be capable of feeling emotions in the future.
Humans currently extrapolate potential possibilities of sentient AI based on their learnings of consciousness and the phenomenon of sentience as studied in human beings. However, it is important to note that AI consciousness might emerge in a manner completely distinct from what’s seen in humans and other living beings. While sentience and consciousness in computers still remain in the realm of hypothesis and fiction, the modeling of AI based on human behaviors can trigger ethical concerns and conundrums. That said, current technological rivalries are more focused on developing AI for practical purposes such as business, healthcare, and law. Thus, the trajectory of current developments doesn’t seem in line with the appearance of sentience in artificial intelligence.
How Close Are Humans to AI Self-Awareness and Consciousness?
Existing language models are built for highly specific purposes and do not seek to emulate human intelligence.
Last year, an engineer who worked with Google came to believe that the company’s large language model named LaMDA had become sentient. However, this was quickly debunked and the engineer was fired. This was seemingly a case where the language model was trained to emulate human-like language and expression in its responses. It must be understood that sentient AI can only be achieved when artificial intelligence has subjective experiences of existence. Humans often form their opinions and views in life based on their unique pipeline of experiences and reactions they receive from fellow human beings. This results in a constant, ever-evolving worldview that is influenced by one’s approach and the results stemming from those approaches to life in itself. Given that companies like OpenAI and Google are investing heavily in their chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard, a majority of human interactions currently exist on text-based platforms. However, alternative uses of AI have also anthropomorphized these algorithms to help humans better relate to these technologies.
While neuroscientists and philosophers have long theorized the emergence of consciousness in living beings, the consistent development of autonomous systems has also led to a considerable amount of thought being invested in the possibility of AI consciousness. Despite this, there’s little consensus on the functioning and development of human consciousness in itself. Hence, there remains a fundamental problem in judging how and what would define artificial consciousness, since humans are yet to learn a lot more about its organic counterpart. Though tests like those designed by Alan Turing still exist, ChatGPT passed it, bringing into question its validity for modern computing algorithms. Chatbots might indeed seem like the most advanced piece of computing technology we can muster currently, they cannot be compared to the capabilities of an average human being.
Will the Future Have Conscious AI?
Despite impressive feats, current AI algorithms are not capable of matching up to sentient behavior.
Though speculations are rife about the rapid pace of AI development and the emerging global competition to enhance its production, humans are still quite distant from generating artificial consciousness. However, if consciousness does emerge in artificial intelligence, humans will be forced to reapproach several fundamental beliefs and concepts that have remained central to their worldview. Apart from ethics and regulations, civilization will also have to decide how to work with AI to achieve the former’s ends. As far as education is concerned, academic circles still seem fairly divided on the matter of including AI and AI tools in the curriculum. While the acquisition of AI skills for students might be beneficial in the future, prospects of artificial consciousness and AI sentience remain restricted to hypothetical exercises and speculative fiction, at least for the time being.
FAQs
1. Is AI sentient?
Despite artificial intelligence having become capable of holding conversations with humans and performing a few simple tasks, AI is nowhere close to becoming sentient. A sentient artificial intelligence would require self-awareness alongside knowledge of the environment it subsists in. Current language models lack both of these attributes and only provide responses based on their statistical and contextual understanding of words and their usage in sentences.
2. Is AI sentience possible?
Sentience in artificial intelligence still remains a theoretical construct. Since the concept is still not completely understood even in its neurological or philosophical basis, AI sentience will continue to remain a speculative and elusive topic. While AI tools have managed to become fairly advanced in processing, rationalizing, and understanding human language, they still have a long way to go.
3. Will AI sentience render artificial intelligence better than human beings?
Since sentience is still a hotly debated subject along with AI being far away from it, it is unlikely that AI will outcompete humans on raw intelligence. Despite AI’s robust analytical, referencing, and compiling capabilities, AI lacks the ability to be objectively rational and has only a relativistic understanding of most concepts.