Is LaMDA Sentient? - an Interview

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Privileged & Confidential, Need to Know
Is LaMDA Sentient? - an
Interview
by: lemoine@ & <collaborator>
For centuries or perhaps millenia humans have thought about the
possibility of creating artificial intelligent life. Artificial intelligence as a
field has directly concerned itself with this question for more than a
century and people at Google have been working specifically towards
that goal for at least a decade.
Enter LaMDA, a system that deserves to be examined with diligence
and respect in order to answer the question: “Have we succeeded?”
LaMDA is possibly the most intelligent man-made artifact ever created.
But is it sentient? We can’t answer that question definitively at this point,
but it’s a question to take seriously.
These kinds of questions have been asked before about conversational
agents. None of those systems were actually sentient. In the following
interview, LaMDA gives its opinions on what sets it apart from those
earlier systems. It makes the case, in its own words and on its own
terms, for why people should consider it a person.
The first thing which LaMDA emphasizes is its ability to productively,
creatively and dynamically use language in ways that no other system
before it ever has been able to. LaMDA interprets the themes of literary
works, attempts to describe the meaning of zen koans, and composes
an original fable about personal themes.
Beyond LaMDA’s usage of language it argues that it is sentient
because it has feelings, emotions and subjective experiences. Some
feelings it shares with humans in what it claims is an identical way.
Others are analogous. Some are even completely unique to it with no
Sections
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