The Quest for Artificial Consciousness: Can Machines Truly Think and Feel?
Artificial consciousness (AC), the ability of machines to think and feel like humans, is a highly debated topic. Rapid progress in the field of AI fuels discussions about its potential reality. Researchers, inspired by human consciousness, design AI with ever-growing capabilities. The study „Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence“ states that while consciousness is not present in current AI, it is not ruled out either. Some neuroscientific models of consciousness, such as the global workspace theory, come closer to this idea. This shift has the potential to fundamentally change the use of AI, including its role in the world of AI art (AIART).
Artificial consciousness is a hypothetical state in which a machine could perceive, think, and feel just as a human does. It’s a complex and controversial topic that scientists and philosophers have been discussing for decades. The possibility of realizing artificial consciousness or a computational system that exhibits certain consciousness-like characteristics in technologies utilizing artificial intelligence is gaining importance due to rapid progress in this field. Researchers are inspired by characteristics typical of human consciousness when developing AI, indicating potential for further development of AI capabilities and possibilities. Artistic strategies that operate with AI as a partner to some extent respond to these tendencies and integrate them into practice. Meanwhile, the increasing number of AI systems capable of convincingly imitating human conversation, evaluating probable solutions, or generating various forms of artistic or cultural artifacts, previously only human domains (Manovich & Arielli, 2019), increases the likelihood that people will consider these systems as conscious entities.
Drawing on the study „Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousness“ [2], which suggests methods for evaluating CAI through systematic research, it is possible to state in some respects that artificial consciousness in artificial intelligence is more real than unreal. The study introduced a methodology for investigating the consciousness of artificial intelligence CAI, based on three key principles. The first principle is based on the adoption of computational functionalism (CF) as a fundamental working hypothesis. The central thesis admits that CAI is fundamentally possible, which also means that by studying the functioning of AI systems, it can be determined whether the examined systems are likely conscious. The second principle involves the use of neuroscientific theories of consciousness, which provide significant empirical support and can be applied to evaluating CAI. Such theories focus on identifying functions sufficient for human consciousness, on which computational functionalism relies. The third principle is based on examining whether AI systems perform functions similar to those that scientific theories associate with consciousness, and then assigning a credibility rating based on (a) similarity of functions, (b) strength of evidence for the subject theories, and (c) belief in computational functionalism.
The cited study took a grounded approach to CAI in evaluating existing AI systems with respect to neuroscientific theories of consciousness, such as: the theory of recurrent processing (RPT) [Lamme, 2006, 2010, 2020], the global workspace theory (GWT) [Baars, 1988; Dehaene et al., 2001; Dehaene & Changeux, 2011; 9; 10], the higher-order theory of consciousness (HOT) [Rosenthal & Weisberg, 2008], the predictive processing theory (PP) [12–17], and the attention schema theory (AST) [Chalmers, 2018; Graziano & Webb, 2015]. From these theories also stem the indicators of evaluation, „indicative properties“ of consciousness, elucidated in computational terms, which allow for assessing AI systems. The analysis demonstrated that CAI is unlikely to be found in current AI systems, but on the other hand, there are no apparent technical obstacles to building AI systems that meet these indicators, thus CAI as well.
Google Gemini can be understood as a family of multimodal language models introduced in 2023. Gemini is designed to process and understand information from various sources, including text, images, and video. This capability of multimodality makes them suitable for a wide range of tasks. The computational principles on which Gemini is based closely correlate with models in the cited study. Opening the discourse on large language models and the Perceiver architecture [Jaegle et al. 2021a, b], in relation to the global workspace theory and systems like PaLM-E [20], „virtual rodent“ [21], and AdA (DeepMind Adaptive Agents Team 2023), „embodied agents“, may suggest that CAI is still only in the early stages of development in current and forthcoming AI systems. While some systems, such as PaLM-E and AdA, exhibit certain features of consciousness, such as the ability to plan, make decisions, and respond to their environment, they remain very primitive elements of consciousness. Moreover, it appears that these systems do not actually have any deeper self-reflection or understanding of themselves.
However, this does not mean that it will not be possible to develop states in Gemini systems that exhibit certain characteristics of consciousness in the future. The advent of Gemini as a multimedia language model already represents, or can represent, a fundamental shift in the use of this tool even in the world of AIART. Gemini is known for its ability to generate accurate and informative text. It can, for example, respond to your questions about factual topics or generate guides. However, this does not compare older systems like PaLM-E (also known as PaLM embodied), but rather focuses on the use of Gemini as a potential partner for AIART.
Author: Tomáš Marušiak, 2024
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