Is AI Sentient?
"AI scientists. The topic of whether AI has achieved sentience has been a prominent one. A small number of them believe strongly that it has. Here is the gist of their arguments by one of the most vocal proponents, quite representative of those in the “sentient AI” camp":
“AI is sentient because it reports subjective experience. Subjective experience is the hallmark of consciousness. It is characterized by the claim of knowing what you know or experience. I believe that you, as a person, are conscious when you say ‘I have the subjective experience of feeling happy after a good meal.’ I, as a person, actually have no direct evidence of your subjective experience. But since you communicated that, I take it at face value that indeed you have the subjective experience and so are conscious.
Is AI Sentient? Read more:
time.com/...
A Stunning New AI Has Supposedly Achieved Sentience
But just how self-aware is the tool we call Claude 3 Opus?
- Its immense capabilities, especially some introspection during testing, left some wondering if Claude 3 had reached a certain level of self-awareness, or even sentience.
- While Claude 3’s abilities are impressive, they’re still a reflection of the AI’s (admittedly) remarkable ability to identify patterns, and lacks the important intelligence criteria to match human sentience.
- .popularmechanics.com/…
Dk images library
A Scientist Says AI Could Kill Us in About 200 Years
- A researcher and SETI leader has quantified his belief that AI must be regulated, and soon.
- The Drake Equation is a hypothetical estimate of how many other civilizations are out there.
- These civilizations may die out from their own runaway AI after about 100-200 years, he says.
- www.popularmechanics.com/…
AI products are power hungry and data-processing heavy. That first increases the workload of existing centers, which increases energy use.
Nov 8, 2023 — It shows that recursively training generative models on their own content leads to self-consuming loops that degrade model quality and diversity
NYT
Google AI
"Incorrect answers in the feature, called AI Overview, have undermined trust in a search engine that more than two billion people turn to for authoritative information. And while other A.I. chatbots tell lies and act weird, the backlash demonstrated that Google is under more pressure to safely incorporate A.I. into its search engine.
The new technology has since generated a litany of untruths and errors — including recommending glue as part of a pizza recipe and the ingesting of rocks for nutrients
This February, the company released Bard’s successor, Gemini, a chatbot that could generate images and act as a voice-operated digital assistant. Users quickly realized that the system refused to generate images of white people in most instances and drew inaccurate depictions of historical figures as minority groups "
www.nytimes.com/...
Big tech has distracted world from existential risk of AI, says top scientist
Max Tegmark argues that the downplaying is not accidental and threatens to delay, until it’s too late, the strict regulations needed
Will Google save the web, or destroy it?
bbc.com
Dk images library
Publishers are already using way too much AI
A new report on AI and creative industries just dropped, and as expected, it’s full of upsetting and depressing details. The dryly titled “State of Play: Exploring Generative AI‘s Transformative Effects on the Media & Entertainment Industry” was commissioned by Bertelsmann, a giant German media conglomerate with a grim history that includes slave labor and Napster. The report examines how AI is already being used in broadcasting, entertainment, news, music, marketing, and publishing, and where those partnerships may be headed.
lithub.com/...
Daniel Dennett’s last interview: ‘AI could signal the end of human civilisation’
www.spectator.co.uk/...
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Google Is Playing a Dangerous Game With AI Search
The search giant’s new tool is answering questions about cancer, heart attacks, and Ozempic.
www.theatlantic.com/…
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Media Companies Are Making a Huge Mistake With AI
News organizations rushing to absolve AI companies of theft are acting against their own interests.
www.theatlantic.com/…
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Generative AI Has Peaked?
Google
Gartner's research suggests that Gen AI has reached the Peak of Inflated Expectations and that it will decline rapidly through the Trough of Disillusionment as it becomes clear that many tools may not live up to the overinflated expectations.Feb 21, 2024
theconversation.com/…
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ELEVENLABS IS BUILDING AN ARMY OF VOICE CLONES
A tiny start-up has made some of the most convincing AI voices. Are its creators ready for the chaos they’re unleashing?
www.theatlantic.com/…
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What Do You Do When A.I. Takes Your Voice?
Two voice actors say an A.I. company created clones of their voices without their permission. Now they’re suing. The company denies it did anything wrong.
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Sean Thomas
AI is coming for artists
AI:Will writers and musicians lead the rebellion?
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The advent of AI threatens to destroy the complex online ecosystem that allows writers, artists, and other creators to reach human audiences.
www.theatlantic.com
AI is bad for the Environment
Microsoft’s AI Push Imperils Climate Goal as Carbon Emissions Jump 30
AI products are power hungry and data-processing heavy. That first increases the workload of existing centers, which increases energy use. But such is the demand that, to keep up, Microsoft has to also build new data centers. That requires carbon-intensive cement, steel and microchips. finance.yahoo.com
More Links on AI:
www.theguardian.com/…
www.nytimes.com/...
www.theguardian.com/...
www.newyorker.com/…
www.theatlantic.com/…
www.nytimes.com/…
www.theguardian.com/...
www.theguardian.com/…
www.theguardian.com/...
amp.theguardian.com/...
www.universetoday.com/…
www.theguardian.com/…
www.theatlantic.com/…
(Thanks for reading Climate Brief)
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