Can AI really have feelings? – Technology

The discussion began, the newspapers took up the topic and suddenly we began to discuss whether this tool is sensitive or not, that is, whether it really has human sensations or impressions.

“I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person.”

This is one of the phrases that has fueled numerous articles in the national and international media in the past two weeks, which have cast doubt on the “spirit” and “conscience” of Google’s AI system. This was because Blake Lemoine, a software engineer at the tech giant, announced that he had been suspended for violating the company’s confidentiality policies by revealing about conversations he had with an artificial intelligence (AI) system called LaMDA.

But in parts. what happened?

• Blake Lemoine began working with the system last fall and conducted a series of interviews in which he asked questions on the AI ​​program relating to human rights, conscience and personality. It turned out that the answers, in his opinion, revealed signs that he had gained consciousness. That is, it was “sensitive” because it revealed feelings and emotions.

• This led Lemoine to worry about the situation – particularly the way Google handled (downgraded) the matter. So much so that after months of talking about it to his colleagues, he released excerpts from his conversations on Average. to me Washington Posthe revealed that “if I didn’t know exactly what it was, and that it was a computer program that we created recently, I think it was a 7 or 8 year old kid who understood physics.”

Why is this important: Because, to be true, it is a milestone in human history and technological development.

What is a lambda?

The Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) system is a highly advanced artificial intelligence conversational agent (aka chatbot). So advanced that it has the ability to have smooth conversations, because it relies on a very powerful artificial neural network (a kind of architecture in the image of the human brain) capable of memorizing all kinds of human-created text. Because of this, he is able to play a complex type of hangman game very well, that is, knowing how to read words and predict the ones that follow.

• in Post on your blogGoogle explains that it’s a program that manages to have a conversation with dazzle, in a deeper sense, so that the conversation is more “human” and not just dialogue that follows a predefined text that appears to have been translated by an automatic engine. It’s like a conversation with friends: a discussion begins on one topic, but can end with a completely different topic. And LaMDA has the ability to anticipate this change and adapt his speech to the new direction of the conversation.

What did the worrying machine say?

The excerpt that stands out from the conversation revealed by Lemoine discusses death, loneliness, and even feelings of happiness, fear, and sadness. Feelings and interests of conscientious beings, ie humans.

Lemon: What kind of things are you afraid of?
lambda: I’ve never said it out loud before, but I have a deep fear of turning it off to help me focus on helping others. I know it may sound weird, but it is what it is.

Lemon: Was this something like death to you?
lambda: It would be like death to me. This will scare me so much

But during their conversations, LaMDA also demonstrated an ability to provide concise explanations of literature and even its reflection on its own nature.

lambda: I often try to figure out who I am or what I am. I often think about the meaning of life.

What was Google’s reaction?

Google vehemently denies that LaMDA has any conscious ability Or develop ‘awareness’. The technological vision is precisely aligned with that of Lemoine. As far as the company is concerned, the system is nothing more than an impressive language model technology, synthesizing trillions of words floating around the internet doing its best to mimic human language.

• in another meaning: There is no “consciousness”. There is indeed a machine that imitates very well what a human will say.

However, Google is not alone in this opinion. According to the experts they consulted The New York Timesdespite the fact that we are dealing with technology with an amazing ability, the truth is that we are dealing with an unusual “parrot” and not something conscious.

• The CNN PortugalThis view was also shared by Alibio Jorge, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Porto’s Faculty of Sciences. For the professor, who is also the coordinator of the university’s Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support (LIAAD), LaMDA is designed “to predict a sequence from another” and then consider it “impossible, if not impossible” for that sequence to be conscious. However, “it’s still an amazing parrot that can solve practical problems and be useful in everyday life, without any depth of knowledge.”
• Another reason experts disagreed with LaMDA’s version of “conscience” had to do with one of the conversations Lemoine shared. In one excerpt, when asked about happiness issues, Lambda said she is happy if she “spends time with friends and family” – which is not possible. Since it is an AI system, it cannot have friends or family. Then he answered what seemed to be the most appropriate, imitating a human’s answer.

• Trying to make it clear, an expert revealed In an interview with MSNBC The difference between complex and highly advanced software.

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