Ezra Hale Lecture Series on AI
Lecture series on AI
Moderator: Irina Mikhalevich (Philosophy, RIT)
Speaker: Patrick Butlin (Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford)
“Consciousness in AI: Insights from the Science of Consciousness”
With a group of colleagues, I recently released a report on the possibility of consciousness in current and near-future AI systems, which I will summarize in this talk. The report argues for, and exemplifies, an empirically-grounded approach to this topic: assessing AI systems in the light of our best neuroscientific theories of consciousness. In the report we survey several prominent neuroscientific theories and derive a set of 'indicator properties': properties that AI systems might have that would make it more likely that they are conscious. We use these indicator properties to assess several existing AI systems and discuss how future systems might implement them. We do not find that any existing system is a strong candidate for consciousness, but our analysis suggests that there are no obvious barriers to building systems which possess the indicator properties.
Bio: Patrick is a philosopher of mind and cognitive science and a Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. His current research is on consciousness, agency and other mental capacities and attributes in AI.
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