AI: What is a sentient being?

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
binocular
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Re: AI: What is a sentient being?

Post by binocular »

No_Mind wrote: Fri May 08, 2020 3:04 pmOkay you win a round after trying for two years. I was mistaken when I wrote that sci-fi films have not shown sentient beings. Happy now?
After the women and existentialism debate I am glad to let you have this one.
*sigh*
All. That is why it is the Turing test. Though I suspect that quite a few machines would too quite soon. Most current bots are able to carry on normal conversation quite well.
Whether a candidate passes the Turing test depends on the evaluator.

Some years back, a university had a webpage where one could chat with a computer, I forgot the name. It answered questions like "How do you know that you're not a robot?" quite cleverly. But when asked metaphysical and philosophical questions (such as "What is the meaning of life?"), it replied in the same evasive, politically correct manner most people do. So who exactly wasn't passing the test here: the computer or people?

One of the themes in android fiction is the psychologically ideal human. Prime examples in film are the Stepford Wives and The Making of Mr. Right. The idea is that humans consider as the psychologically ideal human a being who has a limited range of emotions -- for all practical intents and purposes, an android.
This is sentience and the only way AI would arrive at it is by mimicry.
And the only way a human can arrive at the psychologically ideal human is to mimic androids ...
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
binocular
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Re: AI: What is a sentient being?

Post by binocular »

Garrib wrote: Sat May 09, 2020 6:20 amAI probably already has, and IMO definitely will, be able to pass some version of the turing test with flying colors - meaning computers will be able to convince people that they are in fact sentient beings, when in reality they are mindless, feelingless, consciousnessless, non-living, etc...

The bigger challenge throughout human history has been to convince other people that one, a human, is in fact a human, a sentient being.

- - -
Kim OHara wrote: Sat May 09, 2020 11:58 amSome mindless, feelingless, consciousnessless humans also pass the Turing test.
Evidence?
Does this mean some humans are not in fact sentient beings?
Throughout human history, this is exactly the idea that people have operated with: declaring some categories or populations of humans as subhuman, not sentient (which then justified the mistreatment of them).
The usual candidates have been women, blacks, Jews, gays, the poor, the disabled, children, and Theravadans.
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
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cappuccino
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Re: AI: What is a sentient being?

Post by cappuccino »

hate seems personal, it's impersonal


you can say, "I don't know what your problem is, but it's not me"
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Kim OHara
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Re: AI: What is a sentient being?

Post by Kim OHara »

binocular wrote: Sat May 09, 2020 8:02 pm ...
Kim OHara wrote: Sat May 09, 2020 11:58 amSome mindless, feelingless, consciousnessless humans also pass the Turing test.
Evidence?
Does this mean some humans are not in fact sentient beings?
Throughout human history, this is exactly the idea that people have operated with: declaring some categories or populations of humans as subhuman, not sentient (which then justified the mistreatment of them).
The usual candidates have been women, blacks, Jews, gays, the poor, the disabled, children, and Theravadans.
I was actually thinking of one particular individual in public life.
:thinking:

The long, sad story of "us" and "them" is a different issue.

:namaste:
Kim
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seeker242
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Re: AI: What is a sentient being?

Post by seeker242 »

Ceisiwr wrote: Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:42 pm If, one day, AI becomes a reality would said intelligence be classed as a sentient being in the Dhamma?
Can a human be reborn as an AI being? If not, then no.
Also, for orthodox views, would it also be subject to kamma and rebirth? What are the bare requirements needed to be classed as a sentient being?
It would have to be in order to be classified as such to begin with. If it's not subject to kamma and rebirth, then it's not a sentient being.
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