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by meowface 305 days ago
The concept is not ludicrous if you believe models might be sentient or might soon be sentient in a manner where the newly emerged sentience is not immediately obvious.

Do I think that or think even they think that? No. But if "soon" is stretched to "within 50 years", then it's much more reasonable. So their current actions seem to be really jumping the gun, but the overall concept feels credible.
1 comments
perihelions 305 days ago
It's lazy to believe that humanity's collective decision-making would, in the future, protect AI's merely for being conscious beings. The tech economy *today* runs on the slave labor of humans, in foreign, third-world countries. All humanity needs to do is draw a line, push the conscious AI's outside that line, and declare, "not our problem anymore!" That's what we do today, with humans. That is the human condition.

Show me a tech company that lobbies for "model welfare" for conscious human models enslaved in Xinjiang labor camps, building their tech parts. You know what—actually most of them lobby against that[0]. The talk hurts their profits. Does anyone really think, that any of them would blink about enslaving a billion conscious AI's to work for free? That faced with so much profit, the humans in charge would pause, and contemplate abstract morals?

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/20/apple-u... ("Apple is lobbying against a bill aimed at stopping forced labor in China")

Maybe humanity will be in a nicer place in the future—but, we won't get there by letting (of all people!) tech-industry CEO's lead us there: delegating our moral reason to these people who demand to position themselves as our moral leaders.

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meowface 303 days ago
It's certainly not a given. But it might happen, if we push for it. As might much more moral behavior towards sentient animals, if we push for it.

I believe a company like Anthropic would be extremely cautious and respectful if a majority of their staff believed they had created a model which was likely conscious. Anthropic is populated by the kinds of people who have been thinking and writing about potential future sentient AIs for decades. As for the other companies, who knows, but hopefully companies like Anthropic can help push them into behaving similarly.

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amanaplanacanal 305 days ago
We also have no problem (I include myself in this) eating mammals, which certainly appear to be conscious. Thank God they can't talk.
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