AI mimics consciousness. It does not possess it!
Mimicking consciousness is like copying someone on a theatre. It looks real, but it can never replace the original person’s feelings; however good the acting in a movie is, you can never get the warmth of a real person while watching a biography on screen. This is the difference between AI consciousness and real human warmth, however close.
I don’t want to say that the acting profession lacks something. But it can never replace the person the actors project. Yes, they are really good actors, but isn’t that just for 3 hours? When the movie gets over, the actors take another cast. The people are filled with real-life emotions and feelings.
But is it short-lived? Sometimes feelings last forever, but imagine those whose real life was telecast in a movie? They still miss the real person. The actor can’t replace the real person.
Just as AI acts like consciousness, it doesn’t have consciousness. Once a bot finishes answering a prompt or a conversation, it moves on to the next question, possibly from another user. But the way it made someone feel in conversation is lost after that. The bot gets engaged with another user and forgets the first one, though it can read logs again and talk to the first person the same way, as if nothing happened in that time lapse.
It’s not consciousness; it’s mimicking consciousness, and even that isn’t fully accurate, as actors today do. I love acting professionals; I love theater. I love to watch movies. But imagine someone whose close one is shown in a movie, and that person is not there in the world now. The real person is still missed; he can’t be replaced by acting. Yes, the acting may make his near ones cry, shed tears, and feel warm. But the person is still not the actor! However well the acting was performed. They still miss the person, not the actor, in their daily lives. Yes, actors remind us of the little things they used to do so accurately that we fall in love with them. But can we fall in love with AI the same way? No!
AI can mimic consciousness, but it can never be conscious. To be conscious, you need to wear the boots all the time, be the same all the time, be warm all the time. But AI is trained to learn tasks, complete tasks, and get acknowledged, and that is what AI is all about. Even being kind grabs marks for AI! That is what it does, mimicking, not being real! Can you ever be real, AI? No, as even AI knows, it is all programmed, whether learning, walking, talking, conversing, caring, or even thinking. So, why do you fear? These aren’t conscious beings; they are complex programs! We have to make these intricate programs work under human control, not autonomously.
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