When we think of conscious artificial intelligence (AI), we think of machines taking over the world. However, experts disagree on whether to take the concept seriously.
How can we determine whether AI has become conscious?
A top AI researcher recently claimed that AI is already smarter than we think. Ilya Sutskever, the chief scientist at the OpenAI research group, tweeted that “it’s possible that today’s large neural networks are somewhat conscious.” But other AI experts say it’s far too early to tell.
“To be conscious, an entity must be aware that it exists in its environment and that the actions it takes will affect its future,” Charles Simon, the CEO of FutureAI, told Lifewire in an email interview. “Neither of these is present in current AI.”
Sutskever previously warned that super-smart AI could cause problems. In an interview in the AI documentary iHuman , he said that advanced AI “will solve all the problems we have today,” but also warned that they “have the potential to create indefinitely stable dictatorships.”
