Random reminder that the abilities listed here as lacking, but functionally very attractive to reproduce in AI (offline processing, short and long term memory, setting goals, thinking across contexts, generating novel and flexible rational solutions, internal loops), are abilities closely related to our current understanding of the evolutionary development of consciousness for problem solving in biological life. And that optimising for more human-like problem solving through pressure for results and random modifications comes with a still unclear risk of pushing AI down the same path to sentience. Sentience is a functional trait, we, and many other unrelated animals, have it for a reason, we need it to think the way we do, and have been unable to find a cheaper workaround, and it inevitably evolved multiple times without an intentional designer on this planet under problem solving pressure. It is no mystical or spiritual thing, it is a brain process that enables better behaviour. We do not understand why this path kept being taken in biological organisms, we do not understand if AI has an alternate path open, we are just chucking the same demand at it and letting it adapt to solve it.
Random reminder that the abilities listed here as lacking, but functionally very attractive to reproduce in AI (offline processing, short and long term memory, setting goals, thinking across contexts, generating novel and flexible rational solutions, internal loops), are abilities closely related to our current understanding of the evolutionary development of consciousness for problem solving in biological life. And that optimising for more human-like problem solving through pressure for results and random modifications comes with a still unclear risk of pushing AI down the same path to sentience. Sentience is a functional trait, we, and many other unrelated animals, have it for a reason, we need it to think the way we do, and have been unable to find a cheaper workaround, and it inevitably evolved multiple times without an intentional designer on this planet under problem solving pressure. It is no mystical or spiritual thing, it is a brain process that enables better behaviour. We do not understand why this path kept being taken in biological organisms, we do not understand if AI has an alternate path open, we are just chucking the same demand at it and letting it adapt to solve it.