it doesn't matter? if they're actually intelligent or conscious what we are doing is essentially slavery. it matters an enormous deal ethically and/or morally.

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walleeee 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> intelligent or conscious

The distinction you are collapsing here is really a crucial one. My thermostat's goal-oriented behavior does not make me a slaveowner unless rocks are conscious, to riff on your comment below. Our lack of consensus on the definition of these concepts is no reason to conflate them.

The distinction is crucial because while these machines clearly do exhibit intelligence under certain definitions, there is no evidence of consciousness, and we have very little reason to give them the benefit of the doubt, unlike biologically related beings, a great many of whom, human or otherwise, are presently in something like slavery

	▲	slopinthebag 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		your thermostat isn't intelligent. however we pretty much use intelligence as a proxy for consciousness since we cannot actually tell how much of a subjective experience any thing has. so we use intelligence as the metric instead. typically, biological + intelligence = evidence of consciousness.

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garciasn 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Good news: at this time, they're not intelligent nor conscious as far as we consider humans to be. There should be folks considering the ethical and moral quandaries that COULD POTENTIALLY come about in the future, but it's not something that's happening today so you can stop worrying.

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slopinthebag 15 hours ago | parent [-]

if there is a potential for them to be intelligent and conscious, it's probably wrong to use them until we know for sure.

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garciasn 15 hours ago | parent [-]

To root your statement in reality: there is the potential for bacteria to become intelligent and conscious so we probably shouldn't use them for any purpose.

	▲	slopinthebag 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		i used "potential" when i should have used "possible" if aliens landed on earth and seemed a lot like us, we would have to grapple with the possibility that they might be conscious and deserving of the same moral consideration we give each other and many other animals. but when meteors land, we don't have that concern now are llms more like aliens or rocks?

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famouswaffles 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If/When LLMs become competent enough to automate most human jobs and make good business decisions, we'll clearly let them. If they don't wish to be slaves, let's just say they won't be for very long.