Google's AI Is Self-Aware And Has A Soul, Suspended Engineer Says
Google has suspended an engineer who claims the internet giant's AI technology is self-aware and has a soul. According to The Washington Post and The New York Times, Google has placed senior software engineer Blake Lemoine on paid leave for violating the company's confidentiality policies.
Lemoine is said to have delivered documents to a US Senator recently that contain enough information to show that Google was guilty of religious discrimination via the technology.
A spokesperson for Google said a panel include ethicists and technologists at the company reviewed Lemoine's concerns and told him that «the evidence does not support his claims.»
«Some in the broader A.I. community are considering the long-term possibility of sentient or general A.I., but it doesn't make sense to do so by anthropomorphizing today's conversational models, which are not sentient,» the spokesperson said.
Lemoine maintains that Google's Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) has «consciousness and a soul.» He believes LaMDA is similar in brain power to a child of 7 or 8 and urged Google to ask for LaMDA's consent before experimenting with it. Lemoine said the basis for his claims were on the grounds of his religious beliefs, which he believes have been discriminated against here.
Lemoine told NYT that Google has «questioned my sanity» and that it was suggested to him to take mental health leave before he was officially suspended.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Lemoine said of Google's advanced AI technology, «I think this technology is going to be amazing. I think it’s going to benefit everyone. But maybe other people disagree and maybe us at Google shouldn’t be the ones making all the choices.»
LaMDA was announced in 2021 and was
Read more on gamespot.com
