An artificial intelligence expert has been criticized for saying that AI used for finance, research or medicine could have already developed a consciousness. OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever claimed on Twitter that: “It may be that today’s largest neural networks are slightly conscious.”
Sutskever did not mention any specific developments but was likely referring to mega-scale neural networks, which is the language processing system built by OpenAI for translations, missing words, and question answering. The expert was also unclear what “slightly conscious” means for manmade machines because the concept of consciousness in artificial intelligence is still considered a controversial idea.
While AI has performed impressive tasks like driving cars, flying aircraft, and creating an artificial voice or face, many believe machines having conscious thought is just “hype”. AI researcher Toby Walsh at UNSW Sidney responded to Sutskever’s claims, saying: “Every time such speculative comments get an airing, it takes months of effort to get the conversation back to more realistic opportunities and threats posed by AI.”
The Daily Mail stated that an artificial neural network is a collection of connected units or nodes that model the neurons found within a biological brain, that can be trained to perform tasks and activities without human input – by learning, however, most experts say these systems aren’t even close to human intelligence, let alone consciousness.
For decades science fiction has peddled the idea of artificial intelligence on a human scale, from Mr. Data in Star Trek, to HAL 9000, the artificial intelligence character in Arthur C. Clarke’s Space Odyssey that opts to kill astronauts to save itself.
When asked to open the pod bay doors to let the astronauts return to the spacecraft, HAL says ‘I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that’. While AI has been seen to perform impressive tasks, including flying aircraft, driving cars, and creating an artificial voice or face, claims of consciousness are ‘hype’.
Sutskever faced a backlash soon after posting his tweet, with most researchers concerned he was overstating how advanced AI had become, Futurism reported. ‘Every time such speculative comments get an airing, it takes months of effort to get the conversation back to the more realistic opportunities and threats posed by AI,’ according to UNSW Sidney AI researcher Toby Walsh.
