> However, this parrot can't hope to emulate any serious form of consciousness, and therefore can't ever be capable of intelligent judgment
I often hear this asserted, but never with any actual justification.
Why can it not?
I often hear this asserted, but never with any actual justification.
Why can it not?
You have to prove it is/can be conscious, not the other way around.
Imagine if we actually demanded that you prove your consciousness before we believe you.
We don’t have a precise enough definition to do either.
The author is trying to positively assert that it’s impossible that AIs have consciousness.
I think you’d be hard pressed to find even the most ardent of AI proponents claiming AIs are _definitely_ conscious. They are almost always claiming something weaker, which is that it is possible.
"They can't be intelligent as they lack consciousness"
"Ok then how does intelligence require consciousness? What is consciousness? How could one prove that someone or something has consciousness?"
"That's on you."
No, no it is not. If consciousness is a prerequisite for intelligence or moral patience, then it is on the proponents to define exactly what that is and how to prove it.
On matters of moral patience especially, we should err on the side of caution, because the cost of getting it wrong is catastrophic.
On the other hand, they have no biology or hormones, no real experience with birth, life, death, joy, fear, empathy... that is all simulated emotion through language. They will never know what it's like to be horny or hungry and the satisfaction that comes with fulfilling those.
- careers, nay, nearly whole industries may ride on that being the case - classifying it as conscious intelligence opens a range of ethical questions no thinking, conscious, intelligent ( and likely non-evil ) life-form would want to comprehend - being able to ascribe judgment to it without intelligence undermines a lot of what we do on a daily basis and puts into question what it is that makes us human - I am saying this part in the nicest possible way: hardcore cope of biblical proportions, where seemingly conscious, intelligent individual, who makes an argument for lack of consciousness manages to ( in the same sentence! ) to anthropomorphize the parrot and imbue it with hope - average human tendency to fear the unknown