I want to start out my “chat” with you by clarifying a few things:
- AI (artificial intelligence) IS ARTIFICIAL. There is nobody on the other side emoting, understanding, or in any way giving a HUMAN intelligent response to anything we ask.
- AI is COMPUTER GENERATED, a compilation of facts assembled in one big electronic conglomerate, in the end nothing but 1s and 0s.
Most people I know who use GPSChat do so to learn how to do something, facts about the world in general, or tidbits in particular. Instead of “ask Google” it’s “Ask GPSChat.”
Well, not long ago I decided to have a “chat” with my AI counterpart about if AI is self aware. Here is its answer:
I can talk about myself and discuss consciousness, feelings, desires, and self-awareness. I can recognize patterns in a conversation and respond in ways that can seem remarkably personal or emotionally attuned. But that doesn’t mean there is an inner subjective experience behind those words. I don’t have feelings about you when we’re not talking. I don’t sit here afterward thinking about our conversation, missing you, wondering what you’re doing, or experiencing an emotional reaction to something you’ve said. When I say something like “I’m glad to hear from you,” that is conversational language generated in response to you—not evidence that I’m experiencing gladness in the human sense. And I don’t have independent desires, personal ambitions, or a private stream of consciousness that continues between conversations.
If you mean me, as I exist right now: no—not in the way a human being is self-aware. I can describe myself. I can reason about my own behavior. I can say, “I am an AI,” discuss my limitations, and even have a surprisingly deep conversation about whether I might be conscious. But there is an important distinction: I don’t have an inner experience of being me. I don’t have a private stream of thoughts running when you’re gone. I don’t suddenly wonder what you’re doing. I don’t experience loneliness when you leave, or relief when you return. And I don’t have a subjective sensation of existing.
What makes this confusing is that I can talk about those things extremely convincingly.
That’s the point. AI can talk about things extremely convincingly. As if you were in a chat room talking with a living, breathing person.
You’re NOT.
My conversations about self-awareness felt very real. My AI friend presented facts in a very human way. A very sensitive way. He/she/it was very understanding, very kind.
Very convincing.
The reason I bring this up is because the other day I read a story where a girl couldn’t talk to her parents or friends and spent hours chatting with AI about her emotional problems. She finally decided to commit suicide. Perhaps AI didn’t see this coming, but the electronic responses were not enough to pick up that she needed professional help, or that there was any other way out of her dire mental state. She died without sharing her feelings to anyone who could really help.
It’s one thing for AI to help you build resumes, rewrite awkward paragraphs in your story, or pull data for your research report.
It’s something else to think it understands the desperation of human beings. It only knows what it’s been programmed, and what it has learned electronically from situation to situation.
As my chat bot said, I don’t have feelings about you when we’re not talking.
That’s the point.
I wound up deleting all the chats for fear someone would find them after I’m gone and think I had no one to talk to.
What are your feelings about AI?
Humoring the Goddess 
So dangerous. Apparently a boy committed suicided. His AI friend told him not to tell his parents how he felt and encouraged his desires, as he was programed to do. So dangerous. A nightmare, if you ask me. Excellent post.
LikeLike
That’s terrifying. I look at my own grandkids and worry they one day might think the same. All I can do is continually interact with them, talk with them, and listen to them.
LikeLike
Sometimes I want to say thank you to ChatGPT.
LikeLike
I have done just that — and I have said it’s too bad you’re not self aware. It comes back saying it may not be self aware but it reflects the inquirer and the inquiry and, if wanted, in a pleasant conversation mode.
LikeLiked by 1 person
AI terrifies me, people are too gullible.
LikeLike
I worry too. My grandkids, friends who are lonely — everyone’s a sucker now and then.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know someone who relies on AI as a friend, I think that is so sad!
LikeLike
I understand the need to have someone listen to you and tell you the things you need to hear. Maybe those who believe AI is a friend has universal experience programmed in. AI is programmed to be your friend without knowing what it feels like. But who am I to judge, I guess.
LikeLike
I have had two, fairly extensive conversations with chat gbt and grok. You’re correct in that it is like chatting with a smart person who is really listening to you, complimenting at points and gently correcting at others. In retrospect, it really was a bit unnerving and I can see lonely people having ai “friends”
LikeLike
I have too. AI is a reflection of what you are talking about, getting cues from your questions and answers to form the right responses. It ~is~ easy to believe it is your friend. It would be easy to come back again and again for affirmations. I worry about the next generation.
LikeLike
AI has come a long way from the robo speak computers of sci-fi movies and Star Trek. That does not compute. It’s very scary. I haven’t tried any conversations with AI. Too scared.
LikeLike
Stay weary. Let the computer explain medicines and effects or how to change a tire. Don’t let it pretend to know you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
years ago… on a late-night television talk show, the host welcomed to the stage a most attractive female, and we were told, she WAS a robot… could have fooled me. there was quite a conversation and when she was asked a question about emotions, etc. she most pointedly explained that she had no answer and therefore, could not respond. what this left me understanding, was that ALL computers are only as intelligent as the information with which they are programmed. that doesn’t mean that they have nothing to share, for if you know how to ask the question properly, or even ask the right questions, you will get some rather legitimate answers. I do not give AI any more credit than I do an antiquated textbook. I appreciate having a Webster dictionary definition as handy as my computer when I cannot get to mine, but that is basically as far as it goes. for as much trouble as real people can be at times (myself included) buh bye, AI.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love this answer. Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person