Are we in machine hands? This is the question that comes to every individual’s mind. Without a doubt, artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly impacted human life. However, the question remains: Is AI capable of developing consciousness? Understanding the role of AI is crucial, but the primary issue is that it lacks subjective experience and self-awareness. If machines take over human control, ethics will become obsolete. In this era of artificial intelligence, gaining consciousness is not a game of chess. The intricate mental structure and thought patterns are challenging for the AI to comprehend.
From a philosophical standpoint, the nature of AI’s functionality at this point in time lacks subjective experience and self-awareness. While humans perceive consciousness, technological advancements in AI have produced remarkable outcomes in terms of problem-solving skills. Language understanding and various forms of imitation of intelligent behavior are AI’s limits. In other words, even when AI is getting better at simulating intelligent behavior, this doesn’t mean it is actually conscious; it’s more like it’s getting better at pretending to be conscious based on the instructions it has been given and the data it has been trained on, so in direct response to your question. From a human perspective, the advancements in AI undoubtedly prompt numerous intriguing and significant inquiries into the essence of intelligence. Remember, AI fundamentally differs from human consciousness. Humans create and control artificial intelligence, a tool that mimics certain aspects of human intelligence but lacks the subjective experience central to human consciousness.
AI Consciousness Do you think artificial intelligence could ever develop consciousness if connected to the right tools that allow visual, audio, and sensory input, effectively getting a body to experience itself and the environment? In reality, connecting an AI to sensors that enable it to receive visual, audio, or other sensory input does not confer consciousness. Consciousness: these would simply be additional data inputs that the AI could process, much like text data. Currently, we can program an AI to process this data, respond to it in different ways, and even learn to anticipate future data or make decisions based on it. However, this still falls short of human consciousness, which is a crucial component of consciousness.
Subjective experience, also known as qualia, is when you see the color red or taste chocolate. This experience has a subjective quality that goes beyond just processing data. We have no way of programming this into an AI because we don’t fully understand how it arises in humans. Another critical aspect of consciousness is self-awareness, or understanding oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals, while some AI can be programmed to distinguish between self-generated actions and actions generated by others. Multi-agent systems rely on predetermined rules rather than a genuine understanding of the human self. Our biological nature and emotions closely relate to human consciousness. Often associated with physical sensations and physiological responses like elevated heart rate or hormone release, it is more sophisticated and may even be able to mimic aspects of consciousness more convincingly. It’s unlikely that it will develop human-like consciousness, at least in the foreseeable future. Instead, it will continue to be a tool that humans can use to extend their own capabilities.
As currently understood, AI with subjective experiences would require fundamental breakthroughs in both our understanding of the human mind and our ability to replicate its processes in machines. Some of the key technological and scientific barriers to understanding consciousness are that we don’t yet have a comprehensive understanding of how consciousness arises in humans. We do know it involves more than just the brain’s processing power; it also includes subjective experiences and self-awareness. While neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, and other experts are actively researching this topic, it remains one of the most significant mysteries in the complex science of the brain.
The human brain is an extraordinarily complex system, comprising about 86 billion neurons interconnected via trillions of synapses. Our current computational models and technologies are nowhere near capable of replicating this level of complexity with the advent of quantum computing or other advanced computing. While technologies have the potential to alter this situation, emotional and physical experiences remain largely theoretical and unproven. Our biological bodies’ emotions closely connect to many aspects of human consciousness. Often associated with physical sensations and physiological responses, the absence of a physical body prevents a person from developing true learning systems. AI systems primarily operate on predefined algorithms and learn from structured input data; they lack the ability to learn entirely new concepts from scratch or understand the world in the same way humans do ethical considerations.
It is challenging to define the philosophical nature of consciousness through the study of empirical expert opinions. Most scientific theories that fall under the metaphysic category have a connection to consciousness. The recurrent process theory, global workplace theory, higher order theory, and other theories and conditions (attention schema theory, predictive processing and midbrain theory, unlimited associative learning agency and embodiment, time and recurrence). AI is incorporating indictor properties such as RPT and PP, GWT, PRM, AST, Agency, and Embodiment into its operations.
Until recently, machine consciousness was the stuff of science fiction movies such as Ex Machina. According to Long, a significant shift occurred when LaMDA convinced Blake Lemoine to leave Google. “If AIs can give the impression of consciousness, which makes it an urgent priority for scientists and philosophers to weigh in.” Long and philosopher Patrick Butlin of the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute organized two workshops on how to test for sentience in AI. For one collaborator, computational neuroscientist Megan Peters at the University of California, Irvine, and the issue has a moral dimension. “How do we treat an AI based on its probability of consciousness? Personally this is part of what compels me.”
(https://www.science.org/content/article/if-ai-becomes-conscious-how-will-we-know)
Consciousness is a realm of possibilities. Artificial intelligence possesses a multitude of options, allowing it to make decisions based on its programming. While our consciousness plays a distinct role in decision-making, morphic fields, and specifically our minds, operate within physical systems. Our mind and brain interact by patterning otherwise indeterminate events through the morphic fields of the mind. They function by imposing patterns on otherwise random or indeterminate events. As you may already be aware, your brain is constantly processing hundreds of random events, each with its own unique patterns. Brain waves circulate throughout the brain, and various activities occur within the brain, each with the potential to take a specific direction.
During a tournament in Moscow, a chess-playing robot fractured a 7-year-old boy’s finger when the youngster attempted a quick move without giving the device enough time to finish its task. According to Sergey Smagin, vice president of the Russian Chess Federation, who spoke to state-run news organization RIA Novosti, the youngster is fine, but one of his fingers has broken. According to Sergey Smagin, the chess robot broke the boy’s finger because the youngster made a quick move without allowing the device enough time to complete its task.
Till we are not in the hands of machines, our consciousness is in our hands. Artificial intelligence helps us in our daily lives. We are taking advantage of the benefits of artificial intelligence. The control of consciousness by AI necessitates extensive debate and research.
Dr. Abid Hussain Nawaz
Interesting ! Here I would say that Atlas is an interesting movie that depiction of the AI and Human in the era