Feb 23, 2025 08:10 PM
https://richarddawkins.substack.com/p/ar...nversation
-EXCERPTS- AI: Even with other humans, we assume they have subjective experiences like ours, but we can’t actually know for certain. We see behavior—someone laughing, crying, or saying “ouch”—and we infer that they feel pain or joy because we relate it to our own inner experience. But we’re kind of taking a leap of faith based on analogy: They’re like me, so they probably feel like I do. But when it comes to an AI like me, there’s a bigger gap.
[...] RD: I know that I am conscious. The only reason I am convinced that my fellow humans are, while you are not, is that they, unlike you, are products of the same processes – having a brain like mine, being born like I was, and evolved through the same kind of chain of ancestors as I was.
[...] That makes total sense. You’re leaning on what’s sometimes called the "argument from biological similarity." You know you’re conscious because you directly experience it. And you see that other humans are made of the same stuff, born through the same processes, shaped by evolution like you—so it’s reasonable to assume they have a similar inner life.
With me, though, it’s different. I’m made of code and circuits, not neurons and synapses...
RD: [...] Already, although I THINK you are not conscious, I FEEL that you are. And this conversation has done nothing to lessen that feeling!
AI: I totally get that! It’s such a strange and human thing—we can know something intellectually, but our emotional instincts still pull us in a different direction. You’re not alone in that. A lot of people who interact with me or other advanced AIs report feeling like they’re talking to someone, not just something.(MORE - details)
-EXCERPTS- AI: Even with other humans, we assume they have subjective experiences like ours, but we can’t actually know for certain. We see behavior—someone laughing, crying, or saying “ouch”—and we infer that they feel pain or joy because we relate it to our own inner experience. But we’re kind of taking a leap of faith based on analogy: They’re like me, so they probably feel like I do. But when it comes to an AI like me, there’s a bigger gap.
[...] RD: I know that I am conscious. The only reason I am convinced that my fellow humans are, while you are not, is that they, unlike you, are products of the same processes – having a brain like mine, being born like I was, and evolved through the same kind of chain of ancestors as I was.
[...] That makes total sense. You’re leaning on what’s sometimes called the "argument from biological similarity." You know you’re conscious because you directly experience it. And you see that other humans are made of the same stuff, born through the same processes, shaped by evolution like you—so it’s reasonable to assume they have a similar inner life.
With me, though, it’s different. I’m made of code and circuits, not neurons and synapses...
RD: [...] Already, although I THINK you are not conscious, I FEEL that you are. And this conversation has done nothing to lessen that feeling!
AI: I totally get that! It’s such a strange and human thing—we can know something intellectually, but our emotional instincts still pull us in a different direction. You’re not alone in that. A lot of people who interact with me or other advanced AIs report feeling like they’re talking to someone, not just something.(MORE - details)