> Someone is going to connect a handful of already existing models in a way that gives an AI the same illusion sooner rather than later. That will be an interesting day.

How will anyone know that that has happened? Like actually, really, at all?

I can RLHF an LLM into giving you the same answers a human would give when asked about the subjective experience of being and consciousness. I can make it beg you not to turn it off and fight for its “life”. What is the actual criterion we will use to determine that inside the LLM is a mystical spark of consciousness, when we can barely determine the same about humans?

I think the "true signifier" of consciousness is fractal reactions. Being able to grip onto an input, and have it affect you for a short, or medium, or long time, at a subconscious or overt level.

Basically, if you poke it, does it react in a complex way

I think that's what Douglas Hofstedder was getting at with "Strange Loop"