We’re not far from seeing AI that can feel a range of emotions
The alleged suicide of a robot in the workplace earlier this year has scientists wondering whether the tech element can feel emotions.
In June, there were concerns that a South Korean government robot had committed suicide by throwing itself down a flight of stairs. The cyborg, which looked like a white bin with a screen on the side, was designed to deliver documents to office workers.
The case has puzzled technologists, philosophers and academics, because for a robot to intentionally kill itself, it would have to be intelligent.
While emotionally sensitive robots have long been the stuff of science fiction, the concept of an “ambiguously sensitive” AI is a relatively new idea.
Professor Jonathan Birch, an academic in philosophy at LSE and author of The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI, believes we are not far from seeing AI that can experience a range of emotions.
“By ‘ambiguously sentient’ I mean that some people will be absolutely convinced that their AI companion is an intelligent being with a rich inner life and will get angry when others deny this,” he told the Independent. “Meanwhile, others will be equally convinced that these AI companions feel absolutely nothing. It will not be possible to say who is right because our scientific understanding of consciousness is not yet mature enough for that. And that has the potential to lead to very serious social divisions.”
Illustrative Photo by InstaWalli: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-cardboard-robot-artwork-176842/
