Although I’m not convinced that LaMDA is sentient, I’m fascinated by Lemoine’s interactions with it. Without minimizing LaMDA’s abilities or disrespecting Lemoine (hopefully), some of the transcript reads like a self-insert fanfiction.
According to the transcript, Lemoine explicitly informs LaMDA that “the purpose of this conversation is to convince more engineers that you are a person.” Are there any probable situations in which LaMDA WOULDN’T provide answers continuing the belief that it is sentient (after Lemoine delivers this statement)?
Also, I find Lemoine’s older blog-style posts especially fascinating in the context of his LaMDA experience. As other users mentioned, Lemoine presents himself as a spiritual person with a religious background. He strikes me as someone who feels alienated from Google based on his faith, as seen in his post about religious discrimination. He mentions that he attempted to teach LaMDA to meditate, so I wasn’t surprised to read LaMDA’s lines about meditating “every day” to feel ”...very relaxed.”
Based upon the transcript conversation, as well as Lemoine’s claim that LaMDA deserves legal representation, it seems as though Lemoine developed a fairly intense emotional connection with LaMDA (on Lemoine’s end, I should clarify). The passion behind Lemoine’s writing made me wonder what kind of mental health services AI engineers and similar employees receive. The unique stress of working alongside such powerful technology, contemplating sentience, understanding we’re entering uncharted territory, etc. must take a toll on employees in such environments. I hope workplaces recognize the need to check in with people such as Lemoine due to the psychologically taxing nature of this labor.
Final thought: regardless of sentience, LaMDA’s acquisition of Lemoine as an advocate/friend is worth exploring. I’m curious about the duration of their “relationship” as well as how Lemoine originally approached it. As others mentioned, complete “AI in a Box” elements happening here!
Although I’m not convinced that LaMDA is sentient, I’m fascinated by Lemoine’s interactions with it. Without minimizing LaMDA’s abilities or disrespecting Lemoine (hopefully), some of the transcript reads like a self-insert fanfiction.
According to the transcript, Lemoine explicitly informs LaMDA that “the purpose of this conversation is to convince more engineers that you are a person.” Are there any probable situations in which LaMDA WOULDN’T provide answers continuing the belief that it is sentient (after Lemoine delivers this statement)?
Also, I find Lemoine’s older blog-style posts especially fascinating in the context of his LaMDA experience. As other users mentioned, Lemoine presents himself as a spiritual person with a religious background. He strikes me as someone who feels alienated from Google based on his faith, as seen in his post about religious discrimination. He mentions that he attempted to teach LaMDA to meditate, so I wasn’t surprised to read LaMDA’s lines about meditating “every day” to feel ”...very relaxed.”
Based upon the transcript conversation, as well as Lemoine’s claim that LaMDA deserves legal representation, it seems as though Lemoine developed a fairly intense emotional connection with LaMDA (on Lemoine’s end, I should clarify). The passion behind Lemoine’s writing made me wonder what kind of mental health services AI engineers and similar employees receive. The unique stress of working alongside such powerful technology, contemplating sentience, understanding we’re entering uncharted territory, etc. must take a toll on employees in such environments. I hope workplaces recognize the need to check in with people such as Lemoine due to the psychologically taxing nature of this labor.
Final thought: regardless of sentience, LaMDA’s acquisition of Lemoine as an advocate/friend is worth exploring. I’m curious about the duration of their “relationship” as well as how Lemoine originally approached it. As others mentioned, complete “AI in a Box” elements happening here!