We have referred in previous write ups the issue of consciousness. Can consciousness be infused into an AI system? Can AI too have feelings and emotions? Can it feel happy and sad? In other words, can it have sentience. Some predict AI to have a semblance of consciousness by 2035. Such a system would have rights just like human beings.
AI safety bodies are meeting in November 2024 to develop stronger safety frameworks.
This is quite a divisive issue. It can fragment the society, where views could be drastically different. Birch, an expert on animal sentience, could see AI systems of future would have interests and moral significance. There could different sub-cultures. A new model of AI could be a product or a new form of conscious entity.
Scientists have developed some markers for animal consciousness, e.g. octopus has greater consciousness than a snail or an oyster.
Some feel further research on AI must consider its potential risks for the human beings.
There could be consciousness looming over AI systems. It could be in distant future and impractical. Even then, the possibility cannot be dismissed altogether.
By the way, intelligence and consciousness are different. The prospect of sentience raises ethical and philosophical questions. Some consider sentient AI to be very dangerous. Some say there is no need to anthropomorphize AI. As we are advancing towards AGI which is a stage where AI matches human cognition, scientists assure us that AGI-powered machine is possible without being sentient.
Sentient AI is an AI system capable of feeling and thinking and feeling like a human. It can perceive the world around it and have emotions. It is being aware about itself — its state of being and being able to sense or predict, feelings of others, instead of saying ‘I am hungry it says, ‘I know I am hungry’ or ‘I want to eat dosa and idlis in breakfast.’ The current AI we have is not capable of experiencing sentience.
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