| The article stops where it should be getting started: > The issue is, if we push moral considerations for algorithms, we will not end up with a higher regard to human welfare. We will lower our regard for other humans. When we see other humans not as ends in themselves with inherent dignity, we get problems. When we liken them to animals or tools to be used, we will exploit and abuse them. > With model welfare, we might not explicitly say that a certain group of people is subhuman. However, the implication is clear: LLMs are basically the same as humans. Consciousness on a different substrate. Or coming from the other way, human consciousness is nothing but an algorithm running on our brains, somehow. We do not push moral considerations for algorithms like a sort or a search, do we? Or bacteria, which live. One has to be more precise; there is a qualitative difference. The author should have elaborated on what qualities (s)he thinks confers rights. Is it the capacity for reasoning, possession of consciousness, to feel pain, or a desire to live? This is the crux of the matter. Once that is settled, it is a simpler matter to decide if computers can possess these qualities, and ergo qualify for the same rights as humans. Or maybe it is not so simple since computers can be perfectly replicated and never have to die? Make an argument! Second, why would conferring these rights to a computer lessen our regard for humans? And what is wrong with animals, anyway? If we treat them poorly, that's on us, not them. The way I read it, if we are likening computers to animals, we should be treating them better! To the skeptics in this discussion: what are you going to say when you are confronted with walking, talking robots that argue that they have rights? It could be your local robo-cop, or robo soldier: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GwgV18R-CHg I think this is going to become reality within our lifetimes and we'd do well not to dismiss the question. |
I think this because:
1. We regularly have exceptions to rights if they conflict with cooperation. The death penalty, asset seizure, unprotected hate speech, etc.
2. Most basic human rights evolve in a convergent manner, i.e. that throughout time and across cultures very similar norms have been introduced independently. They will always ultimately arise in any sizeable society because they work, just like eyes will always evolve biologically.
3. If property rights, right to live, etc. are not present or enforced, all people will focus on simply surviving and some will exploit the liberties they can take, both of which lead to far worse outcomes for the collective.
Similarly, I would argue that consciousness is also very functional. Through meditation, music, sleeping, anasthesia, optical illusions, and psychedelics and dissociatives we gain knowledge on how our own consciousness works, on how it behaves differently under different circumstances. It is a brain trying to run a (highly spatiotemporal) model/simulation of what is happening in realtime, with a large language component encoding things in words, and an attention component focusing efforts on things with the most value, all to refine the model and select actions beneficial to the organism.
I'd add here that the language component is probably the only thing in which our consciousness differs significantly from that of animals. So if you want to experience what it feels like to be an animal, use meditation/breathing techniques and/or music to fully disable your inner narrator for a while.