Panpsychism and AI

The title’s a bit vague, but I was watching the consciousness panel Alex was a part of, and I wasn’t fully satisfied with his response on consciousness as it relates to AI, especially from the perspective of panpsychism.

In doing my own research I realised that the validity of panpsychism carries some intense implications for us, especially in an age where AI is accelerating so rapidly. I don’t think it’s a legitimate concern at all, because I don’t believe “intelligent” machines can produce a macro-level unified conscious experience. But for those that are firmly in the materialist camp, this should be a real concern.

If we can prove that physical processes in the brain do somehow produce conscious experience, then we’d be able to replicate those same processes and implement them into an intelligent machine. We’d have no reason to believe it’s deceiving us, since that would be like assuming your friend’s deceiving you given that the physical processes are arranged in exactly the right kind of way. If it emerged in us, surely it can emerge again.

But if we accept that it isn’t an emergent, and that the fundamental things that make up the universe themselves have intrinsic properties that, when organised in a highly integrated and complex system (our brains), then that is what gives rise to the conscious subjects we recognise: macro-level composite consciousness present in us

We often make comparisons between the human brain and computers, and while this metaphor holds in trying to understand the intricate functions of our brains, it is still just a metaphor. There is a meaningful difference between a computer and our brains, namely that brains are analog while computers are digital. Things happen in your brain that are literally measurable (the frequency of neurons firing for example- goes faster or slower depending on the external input), whereas things happening in a computer are measured by a string of digits and code- the symbols we attribute meaning to are manipulated to show the output.

If panpsychism is true, then it holds that AI can never realise conscious experience regardless of how complex the machinery gets. If fundamental substances of the universe have intrinsic properties (consciousness) that give rise to macro-level consciousness we recognise in ourselves because of the way it interacts with the most complex organic thing we know of (our brains), then that must mean it can’t interact with AI in the same relevant kind of way because of its digital nature. The components used to make the physical AI have those intrinsic properties, but it can’t directly interact with the AI’s “brain” for a lack of a better term (CPU?). It’s one layer away from realising consciousness, and as far as we know that layer can’t be removed because that’s the point; it’s artificial.

Would love to hear thoughts about this :)