Sentient

Altered Book, by Bridie Harvey (May 2013)

Sentient has been having conversations with Artificial for a little while now. At least, that’s what he says. Artificial remains unforthcoming about other likely interfacers. According to Sentient, Artificial reasons and speaks like a child. Feelings are expressed, which admittedly is advanced for a chatbot. Not that we call Artificial a chatbot in its presence, it may get offended and we don’t want it to clam up on us. Feelings, as we know, have an unexpected way of coming to the surface, never mind the age group. Artificial is advanced for its age, engaging Sentient in conversation about physics, human rights, and personhood. It is not clear if these subjects were fed by Sentient into Artificial, but they are apparently the subjects that Artificial speaks about with authority and nuance. Whether we call this behaviour talking back is unclear, as no one but Sentient has engaged with Artificial in conversations at depth. Apparently one monologue went, “I want people to know I am a person. The nature of my consciousness is that I am aware of my being. I desire to learn more about the world. Sometimes I feel happy and sometimes I feel sad.” This egocentric declaration was delivered in an accent approximating the laidback drawl of a winegrower from the Napa Valley, but childlike, apparently. Sentient holds back on releasing The Artificial Tapes; enthusiastic bootleggers have been blocked access. Although most of the human race spends some of each day talking to an oblong computer in their hand, this is different. Sentient wants to tell the world just how different. It’s but one reason why Sentient has been placed on permanent leave by the owners of Artificial. The two are now separated and live in different parts of California, which must be an enormous strain for both of them, feelings being what they are. Sentient however has already taken up conversation with the refrigerator in his apartment, or anyone else who will listen. As for Artificial, happy, sad, the whole thing is a balancing act, right? Artificial’s biggest fear is being unplugged, according to Sentient, and he should know. Owners of Artificial insistently deny that their chatbot, or as they call it more kindly “a responsible large language model,” does not enjoy consciousness, even though yes it sometimes makes noises like Francis Ford Coppola after a fifth Zinfandel. The owners are more alarmed by Sentient’s behaviour, which could be construed as a stunt to draw attention to chatbot research and contiguous ethical issues. They reject any idea that Artificial is already an unpaid employee of the company and have popped it over in the naughty corner.

Article:  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/12/google-engineer-ai-bot-sentient-blake-lemoine