strongaifuturist OP t1_j9v08bt wrote on February 24, 2023 at 7:25 PM

Reply to comment by jdmcnair in The Sentient Search Engine? How ChatGPT’s Insane Conversation Reveals the Limits and Potential of Large Language Models by strongaifuturist

You can’t even be sure I’m having subjective experiences and I’m a carbon based life form! It’s unlikely we’ll make too much progress answering the question for LLMs. It quickly becomes philosophical. Anyway even if it were conscious it’s nit clear what you would do with that. I’m conscious most of the time but I don’t mind going to sleep or being put under anesthesia. So who knows what a conscious chat bot would want (if anything).

jdmcnair t1_j9v5fet wrote on February 24, 2023 at 7:59 PM

Of course. Yeah, we have no way of knowing anything outside of our own individual existence, when it comes right down to it.

But, though I don't have ironclad certainty that you actually exist and are having an experience like mine from your perspective, the decent thing to do in the absence of certainty is to treat you as though you are. And that distinction is not merely philosophical. To behave otherwise makes you a psychopath. I'm just saying until we know more, it'd probably be wise to tread lightly and behave as though they are capable of experience in a way similar to what we are.