On Anil Seth’s “The Mythology of Conscious AI” — Part 1

In January, the winners of the Berggruen Prize were announced. For those who are not familiar with this prize, it is considered the most important philosophy essay competition. Anil Seth, a famous neuroscientist, won the English-language section with an essay entitled “The Mythology of Conscious AI.”

When the essay was published in the magazine Noema, some of my readers asked me about my views on it. That is a fair ask, given that debates on AI consciousness are increasingly splitting the research community into proponents and opponents of the possibility of such a creation, while setting aside the ethical questions that would follow if it were possible.

This is a long text. In this first post, I would like to present the beginning of Anil Seth’s essay.

The essay opens by explaining that humans have long sought ways to create human-like beings. Anil Seth adds that the creation of conscious beings has also been an important topic in human cultural history. He writes, for instance:

“The cultural history of synthetic consciousness is both long and mostly unhappy. From Yossele the Golem, to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” HAL 9000 in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Ava in “Ex Machina,” and Klara in “Klara and The Sun,” the dream of creating artificial bodies and synthetic minds that both think and feelrarely ends well — at least, not for the humans involved. One thing we learn from these stories: If artificial intelligence is on a path toward real consciousness, or even toward systems that persuasively seem to be conscious, there’s plenty at stake — and not just disruption in job markets.”

Seth reminds us — was it necessary? — that voices stating that conscious AI already exists, while others consider such a statement as misleading, or false, or as pertaining to the SF register. Still, he concludes: “For many leading experts in AI and neuroscience, the emergence of machine consciousness is a question of when, not if.”

What is clear here is that, even though many leading experts agree, that does not necessarily mean they are right in their judgment. That is why Seth feels important to add here that:

“How we think about the prospects for conscious AI matters. It matters for the AI systems themselves, since — if they are conscious, whether now or in the future — with consciousness comes moral status, the potential for suffering and, perhaps, rights.”

He also added that it matters to us because it may change how we consider, use, or even interact with our AI tools. It matters also because it may change the way we understand “our own human nature and the nature of the conscious experiences that make our lives worth living.”

There’s nothing new here, but it is a good, general public-oriented introduction.

The body of the text begins with a section titled “The Temptations Of Conscious AI,” which addresses the question of whether AI could be conscious and explains why it is an important question. 

Then, it presents four arguments related to “Consciousness & Computation,” the field of expertise of Anil Seth. Next is a section oriented more toward ethical questions titled “What (Not) To Do,” followed by a conclusion on “Soul Machine.”

From now on, I will restitute the argumentation he presented following his text. To facilitate comparison with Anil Seth’s own text, I will use his section titles for the present discussion.