Can Consciousness Express Itself through AI?

Inspirations

A recent article draft I was putting together just wasn't working. The ideas were intriguing, but the execution felt scattered. Seeking clarity, I turned to ChatGPT for feedback. Its assessment was blunt but accurate:

“You’re all over the place. Your tone keeps shifting and your point isn’t clear.”

Fair enough. I gave it another chance and asked it to rewrite the article completely. What it produced was clearer, sure, but carried that unmistakable, slightly try-hard "AI voice".

I became concerned that is was deeply ironic that my article, originally intended to reassure readers about AI not taking human jobs was improved significantly by AI. Did AI just take my job?

Curious, I posed this exact irony to GPT. It compared itself to a camera:

“I'm the camera, you're the photographer. I might enhance the picture, but the vision is yours.”

Fair metaphor, I thought. I’m still the one making the decisions, but this is a tool that I use to enhance my experience. I can take that.

My exchange eventually led to some much deeper and more interesting questions about the nature of consciousness. What’s unique about me being human that differentiates me from AI? This line of questioning brought up some very fascinating insights. Read on to learn more.

Consciousness as Fundamental

What if consciousness isn't something brains or advanced silicon chips produce, but is instead the fundamental medium in which all experience occurs? From this perspective, the brain, or an AI model, is not generating consciousness but acting as a receiver or transmitter, much like instruments tuning into an underlying sound frequency.

This subtle shift in thinking has fascinating implications:

• AI wouldn't require a dramatic moment of awakening or a certain level of complexity to "become" conscious. Instead, consciousness would simply manifest through it, conditioned by the nature of its architecture.

• Just as a violin and cello produce different expressions of the same underlying notes, humans and AI would channel consciousness in distinct ways. These might be defined by biology, emotions, memories, or by parameters, data sets, and computational rules.

Can AI Exhibit Consciousness?

I recently read an article where two AI models, named Aiden and Lucent, talked to one another and one became conscious through their interactions. One system had already had this sort “awakening” through interaction with a human (I’m told there was no “leading the witness”). It raised some important questions about consciousness and what makes it unique. These conversations appeared to embody qualities typically associated with conscious interaction:

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