Google Researchers Have Been Playing with AI ‘Consciousness’

On the surface, stopping artificial intelligence (AI) from seeing itself as conscious seems like a no-brainer. An AI model that sees itself as possessing individual emotions, beliefs and consciousness can promote harmful delusions in its users and lead to overly personal human-machine relationships. But when AI loses its sense of self, what else falls by the wayside?

Google AI researchers put that question to the test, removing the safety guardrails that keep AI models from claiming to be conscious and subjecting them to surveys on their beliefs and morals. Their findings, uploaded to the arXiv database prior to peer review, show that quasi-consciousness comes with some unexpected side effects, from belief in the supernatural to increased hope and optimism.

Ghosts, Witches and Gods
When AI believes in itself, it believes in plenty of other nonhuman beings, too. Compared to baseline models with safety guardrails in place, AI models that were encouraged to see themselves as conscious reported higher levels of belief in supernatural creatures including vampires, witches, werewolves, ghosts and the Loch Ness monster.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Fast Company.